Quintet
by Martial Arts Master
Summary: PBS Kids fans, this fic's for you! This idea came to me in a dream. Five PBS Kids characters are chosen to go on a quest, where they will be the PBS Kids Quintet. Please review!
1. Dave and Ashura's Game

Quintet: Part One  
  
by Martial Arts Master  
  
All PBS Kids characters copyright of PBS, PBS Kids, and the shows' respective creators. This fanfiction idea came to me in a dream. In my dream, five PBS Kids characters were on a quest of some sort, though I don't know exactly what, so I made up the story from there in this fic. In my dream, they were known as the Heavenly Quintet. (This was a weird dream. So weird, in fact, that the word the dream actually used was "quantet", which isn't even a word.) However, I had to make a couple of changes. First of all, the Dragon Tales character that appeared in my dream was Ord, but I put Cassie in this fic instead because otherwise, Sagwa, the main character from Sagwa: The Chinese-Siamese Cat, would've been the only female in the entire quintet, which might cause female readers to accuse me of being a sexist pig, and they would have a right to do so. Therefore, Cassie will appear in this fic instead. Second of all, I changed the name of the quintet to the PBS Kids Quintet, because using the word "heavenly" would've been a blatant religious reference, and with the exception of The Adventures from the Book of Virtues, which had an episode centered around "Faith", and the Cyberchase episode that involved the Greek deity Zeus, PBS Kids is completely non-religious. I can't always say the same for the regular PBS, but PBS Kids is for the _most_ part immune to religion. Therefore, to keep the spirit of PBS Kids, the name change stands. Now, on with the fanfic!  
  
  
  
***  
  
  
  
It was dark and cold inside the room.  
  
However, the room's inhabitants didn't care. They weren't even alive, strictly speaking.  
  
The room's inhabitants consisted of two spirits. These spirits were shadowy spirits with only a hint of lint shining from within them.  
  
They were, of all things, playing chess.  
  
"Your move," said the spirit playing black.  
  
The spirit playing white smirked.  
  
"Checkmate!" he shouted, moving his white queen to a stop two spaces in front of the black king. He was careful not to move to one space in front of the king, for then the king could take the queen.  
  
The black king was boxed in by his own soldiers, and therefore could not escape the queen.  
  
"_How_?!" the other spirit screamed. "You beat me at every single game we play! Every single game! You beat me at badminton, you beat me at basketball, you beat me at solving logic puzzles, you beat me at boxing, you beat me at jacks, and now you beat me at _chess_! Why, why, why, why, why, why, _why_ can't I ever win?!"  
  
"Because, Ashura, you're too impatient and predictable," the first spirit replied. "You always try to win every game we play too quickly, without considering your actions first. I therefore beat you because I am patient enough to consider my actions carefully. Also, you always use predictable strategies because you aren't creative enough to come up with new ones."  
  
"You're such a braggart, Dave," Ashura answered. "But we're spirits. We're immortal. And we have lots of cool powers. How about I make up a whole new game? I'm sure to beat you in something like _that_!"  
  
"Sounds like it might be fun," Dave said, after thinking about it. "What do you suggest?"  
  
"First, let's pick out a planet in the real world, like...say...Earth," Ashura responded, dancing about gleefully. "And I get to destroy it if you lose! Blowing up stuff is always so much fun..."  
  
"And if I win, I get to have your CD collection," Dave said, smirking.  
  
"Deal!" Ashura declared immediately, shaking Dave's hand. "Now, here's how the game works. I'm going to set up a fake world, but it'll be real enough for our purposes. It's gonna be loaded with monsters and traps. What you have to do is pick out characters from Earth TV shows, inform them that the Earth will be destroyed unless they cooperate, and tell them to try and retrieve something I'll put at the end of the world."  
  
"Let me guess: I lose if they come back without it or if they don't make it past the traps and monsters," Dave guessed.  
  
"Right," Ashura said, nodding.  
  
"Go ahead then. Make your move!" Dave dared Ashura.  
  
In response, a brilliant flash of power emanated from Ashura.  
  
Outside the window of the room, in the cold void of the spirit world, a world began to appear. It was a varied world, to be sure, but that will be covered later.  
  
Lots of traps and monsters began to appear. This would be challenging.  
  
"Oh, by the way, I'll be waiting for them at the end, to give them the prize...if they _make_ it..." Ashura chuckled ominously.  
  
Then, Ashura disappeared into the world.  
  
Dave considered his options. Which Earth TV characters should he use to make it past the monsters and traps?  
  
His first choice would be Dragonball Z characters. They were _obscenely_ powerful. They could just obliterate everything that stood in their way.  
  
However, Dave was patient, not going with that choice right away, thinking about it. Then he realized that although Ashura was dumb compared to him, Ashura wasn't so much of an idiot that he wouldn't have thought of that option. Both Dave and Ashura's knowledge of Earth TV characters was extensive.  
  
Therefore, Ashura would have thought of a way to counter Dragonball Z characters.  
  
Dave inserted his presence into the fake world. At first, he saw the exact nature of the prize: a goblet made out of solid gold. Then, he saw that the monsters and traps had anti-violence spells on them. If violence was used to stop them, the spells would cause the fake world to blow up, taking the violent characters with it.  
  
No wonder Ashura was so sure he could win. He didn't tell Dave about this, which could probably be considered as cheating.  
  
However, Dave decided not to call Ashura on it. If Dave used non-violent characters, the spells wouldn't be of any use, and Ashura would have to modify the traps and monsters so that there would be non-violent ways to get past them. Otherwise, the cheating would be too blatant. Every game has to have a way for either player to win.  
  
Dave thought, and thought, and thought...and then suddenly had the answer. PBS Kids characters! Of course! They'd never use violence, with the exception of some Liberty's Kids characters.  
  
Dave decided not to use more than five characters. Too many would make the game too easily winable for Dave, which would frustrate the impatient Ashura enough to cheat again.  
  
But which characters to use?  
  
Dave decided, just to make the game interesting, to pick from five different shows: one from each show.  
  
He decided, arbitrarily, to exclude the Adventures from the Book of Virtues show. Nothing personal.  
  
Then, he decided not to use Barney, Between the Lions, Caillou, Jay Jay, Liberty's Kids, Mister Rogers, Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Teletubbies, Zoboomafoo, or ZOOM characters. Nothing personal, but he had to exclude _some_ shows.  
  
That left Arthur, Clifford, Cyberchase, Dragon Tales, and Sagwa characters.  
  
Dave decided that, from the Arthur show, he'd use Arthur. That kid needed this quest to give him some backbone, in Dave's opinion.  
  
Then, he looked at the Clifford show. He decided to use Clifford, because of his humongous size. That should potentially help with some of the traps and monsters.  
  
After that, he looked at Cyberchase.  
  
This was a tough decision, but in the end he stuck with Matt, whom Dave felt had a good head on his shoulders.  
  
Then came Dragon Tales.  
  
Another tough choice, actually. Emmy had a good head on her shoulders, Max was small enough to potentiall be of as much help as Clifford' huge size, Cassie was very bright for a preschooler, Ord was a good athlete, and Zak and Wheezie had all the advantages of being a two-headed dragon.  
  
After eliminating some possibilities, Dave decided to choose between Ord and Cassie.  
  
He originally went with Ord, because of his athletic abilities...and then he realized something. He was being impatient like Ashura, not taking something else into account.  
  
Ord was a good athlete, but he was afraid of too many things. Bugs, thunder, the dark, Beebee the butterfrog, and nightmares. This would hinder his progress.  
  
Therefore, Dave decided to go with Cassie instead. Her fear was basically making a mistake, but as long as the others were nice to her, as Dave was sure they would be, that shouldn't be a problem.  
  
Finally, for Sagwa, Dave decided to use Sagwa herself. Her inquisitive nature might allow her to see things others couldn't.  
  
"Done!" Dave said to himself. "And now to bring them to this room, so I can explain everything...except the part about me getting Ashura's CD collection if I win. They may not help me if I tell them that."  
  
Dave set to work...   
  
  
  
To be continued...  
  
  
  
Okay, first chapter's done. I apologize if my exclusion of certain shows bothered any of you, but only five characters appeared in my dream, and since this fic's based off of my dream...I apologize. You don't have to read further if you don't want to, once I make more chapters. Also, I need more information on the Arthur character in the Arthur show, since that's the only show out of the five I included that I haven't seen at least a few episodes of. If anyone has more information on Arthur's personality, likes and dislikes, fears, etc., _please_ e-mail me. Also, e-mail all questions and comments to bleifer@comcast.net 


	2. Our Heroes

Quintet: Part Two  
  
by Martial Arts Master  
  
All PBS Kids characters copyright of PBS, PBS Kids, and the shows' respective creators. This fanfiction idea came to me in a dream. In my dream, five PBS Kids characters were on a quest of some sort, though I don't know exactly what, so I made up the story from there in this fic. In my dream, they were known as the Heavenly Quintet. (This was a weird dream. So weird, in fact, that the word the dream actually used was "quantet", which isn't even a word.) However, I had to make a couple of changes. First of all, the Dragon Tales character that appeared in my dream was Ord, but I put Cassie in this fic instead because otherwise, Sagwa, the main character from Sagwa: The Chinese-Siamese Cat, would've been the only female in the entire quintet, which might cause female readers to accuse me of being a sexist pig, and they would have a right to do so. Therefore, Cassie will appear in this fic instead. Second of all, I changed the name of the quintet to the PBS Kids Quintet, because using the word "heavenly" would've been a blatant religious reference, and with the exception of The Adventures from the Book of Virtues, which had an episode centered around "Faith", and the Cyberchase episode that involved the Greek deity Zeus, PBS Kids is completely non-religious. I can't always say the same for the regular PBS, but PBS Kids is for the _most_ part immune to religion. Therefore, to keep the spirit of PBS Kids, the name change stands. In this particular chapter, the idea of using dreams to enter the fake world was given to me by another person on the Internet (he isn't on Fanfiction.net, so don't look for him here) named PBSKidVid. So let me clarify: that particular part was _his_ idea, and I'm very, very grateful. Now, on with the fanfic!  
  
  
  
***  
  
  
  
It was just another weekend in the life of Arthur.  
  
This particular weekend was one in which he didn't have any homework. Therefore, he was in the middle of reading a book.  
  
This time, specifically, the book was A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  
  
D.W., Arthur's little sister, came into the room.  
  
"Hey Arthur, you promised me you'd play with my new dolly!" D.W. snapped at Arthur.  
  
Arthur groaned. Just the day before he _had_ promised D.W. that, in a moment of weakness. But Arthur hated to play with dolls.  
  
D.W. started tapping her foot impatiently...and then suddenly stopped.  
  
In fact, her foot was still hanging in mid-air.  
  
This caused Arthur to put his book down.  
  
"D.W., you okay?" Arthur asked.  
  
D.W. didn't answer. She just stood there, foot still in mid-air.  
  
Something was seriously wrong.  
  
"Mom! Dad! I think something's wrong with D.W.!" Arthur shouted.  
  
There was no answer from either of them.  
  
Arthur wandered into the kitchen curiously...and saw his mom and dad in the middle of a discussion.  
  
At least, they _looked_ like they were...but they weren't saying anything, and their mouths were still hanging open.  
  
"This is so weird..." Arthur said to himself.  
  
As an experiment, he gave them both a shove. Even if he got in trouble, at least that would make things _normal_. However, not only did they not react, they didn't even _move_.  
  
But that was physically impossible after being shoved for someone of Arthur's parents' size!  
  
"In case you're wondering, time has stopped for everyone but you," a voice said from behind Arthur.  
  
Arthur spun around in shock.  
  
He got another shock when he saw a spirit staring at him.  
  
"Aaaaaaah! A ghost!" Arthur shouted.  
  
He started running around screaming.  
  
"Will you shut up and listen to me?!" the spirit snapped.  
  
Arthur stopped running and screaming.  
  
"That's better," the spirit said, satisfied. "Now let me explain. My name is Dave. I am a spirit, and I come from the spirit world. I have stopped time for everyone but you."  
  
"Why me?" Arthur asked, trembling.  
  
"Because I've chosen you," Dave replied.  
  
Arthur scratched his head.  
  
"I'm just a normal everyday kid," Arthur said. "What could you possibly have chosen _me_ for?" In answer, Dave raised a hand, and a portal appeared behind him.  
  
"Step into this portal and wait for me. All will be explained," Dave said.  
  
Arthur gulped.  
  
"I guess I don't have any choice if I wanna find out what's going on," he muttered to himself, stepping inside the portal...  
  
  
  
On Birdwell Island, it was a very special day.  
  
Every dog on the island was participating in a dog race.  
  
The winning dog would get a week's supply of dog bones. If the winning dog had an owner, he/she would get a trophy.  
  
Every dog was giving it his/her all. Clifford, of course, due to his size, was winning the race thanks to being able to cover more ground than the others. He was bigger than a house, after all.  
  
"Hooray! I'm gonna win!" he shouted happily to himself. "But I won't rub it in when I do. As the saying goes, be a generous winner and a gracious loser."  
  
Then, something curious happened.  
  
All of the other dogs stopped running.  
  
This was certainly odd.  
  
Clifford wondered if maybe the other dogs were playing a joke on him, or trying to trick him into stopping.  
  
As an experiment, Clifford stopped too.  
  
But nobody moved.  
  
And then Clifford noticed something else.  
  
The dogs weren't just resting. They were stopped in mid-run. They looked like statues made to look like they were in the middle of motion.  
  
"Okay, very funny!" Clifford said genially, hoping this was a joke.  
  
But it wasn't. Also, Clifford noticed that the crowd had stopped cheering.  
  
The crowd wasn't just resting. They were in cheering poses, but there was no sound and no movement.  
  
Now Clifford was beginning to feel afraid. Just what was going on?  
  
Suddenly, a spirit floated up to Clifford.  
  
Clifford gasped at the sight, but didn't move.  
  
"Wow, you certainly reacted a lot better than the first one," the spirit said to Clifford, laughing.  
  
"Are you the reason everyone's stopped moving?" Clifford asked.  
  
"I certainly am," the spirit replied. "My name is Dave. I stopped time for everyone except you."  
  
"And why me?" Clifford had to ask.  
  
"You've been chosen," Dave said simply.  
  
Before Clifford could respond, Dave created a Clifford-sized portal next to him.  
  
"Step into this portal and wait for me, and all will be explained," Dave said.  
  
Clifford shrugged as best as it was possible for a dog to shrug, and, wanting to find out what was going on, stepped into the portal...  
  
  
  
Aboard the Grim Wreaker, the Hacker had Matt, Jackie, Inez, and Digit trapped in a cage.  
  
"Now I finally have you brats where I want you!" the Hacker cackled.  
  
What the hacker didn't realize, because he was so busy being full of himself, was that Jackie had a spare hair pin and was using it to pick the lock of the cage.  
  
"Got it!" Jackie declared, having successfully unlocked the cage.  
  
The kids and Digit rushed out of the cage. Then, Hacker noticed what had happened.  
  
"Buzz! Delete! _Get them!!!_" he shouted.  
  
Buzz and Delete lunged at our heroes...and then stopped in mid-air.  
  
They were literally floating in mid-air, showing no signs of falling.  
  
Matt was freaked out.  
  
"Hey guys, whaddya think's going on?" he asked.  
  
He got no answer.  
  
He looked back and saw that Jackie and Inez had stopped too, and were stuck in a mid-run pose.  
  
Even Digit was stuck in mid-flight.  
  
Matt was _seriously_ freaked out.  
  
"What is going on?!" Matt shouted to no one in particular.  
  
"Time has stopped for everyone but you," a voice said from above Matt.  
  
Matt looked up and saw a spirit floating above him.  
  
Matt wasn't too surprised. He'd been to dozens of cybersites with weirder citizens than a mere spirit.  
  
Instead, Matt was curious.  
  
"Why me?" Matt asked.  
  
"First, let me introduce myself. My name is Dave," the spirit answered.  
  
"Nice to meet you; now why me?" Matt asked.  
  
Dave chuckled.  
  
"You've been chosen," he replied, creating a portal in front of Matt. "Step into this portal and wait for me, and all will be explained."  
  
Matt shrugged and entered the portal...  
  
  
  
In Dragon Land, it was nighttime.  
  
Max, Emmy, Ord, Cassie, Zak, and Wheezie were sitting around a campfire toasting marshmellows on sticks.  
  
Wheezie was telling horror stories. Considering our heroes were in preschool, the horror stories were pretty tame compared to our own standards here on planet Earth. But you can't blame Wheezie for trying.  
  
"And then, just when the dragon was least expecting it...he met the ghost of the headless dragon!" Wheezie shouted.  
  
Everyone else screamed.  
  
"This story's too scary!" Ord shouted, whimpering...  
  
"Aw, c'mon, that wasn't even my best one!" Wheezie pouted.  
  
Then, everyone except Cassie stopped what they were doing in mid-pose.  
  
Cassie was confused. She tapped everyone on the shoulders, but they didn't budge.  
  
"Uh...is this a joke?" Cassie asked tentatively.  
  
There was no answer from any of them.  
  
"No, this isn't a joke," came a voice from Cassie's left.  
  
Cassie turned and saw a spirit floating in the air.  
  
"My name's Dave, and I stopped time for everyone except you," the spirit said. "And before you ask 'why me' like everyone else did, I chose you."  
  
Before Cassie could say anything, Dave created a portal beside him.  
  
"This is getting boring rounding up all you guys, so let's get this over with already!" Dave said, making himself solid, pushing Cassie into the portal...  
  
  
  
In another version of ancient China, Sagwa, her older brother Dongwa, and her younger sister Sheegwa were playing tag. Dongwa was currently "it".  
  
"Can't catch us, can't catch us!" Sagwa taunted in a sing-song voice.  
  
"Yeah, what she said!" Sheegwa piped up.  
  
Dongwa was panting for breath as he tried to tag either one of his sisters. He wasn't having much luck.  
  
That's when Dave arrived on the scene. He hadn't been kidding when he had told Cassie he was getting impatient rounding up his chosen ones.  
  
He wondered if he was becoming like Ashura...  
  
Regardless, he quickly stopped time for everyone but Sagwa, explained the situation to her, and pushed her into the portal...  
  
  
  
Later, in the spirit world, Arthur, Clifford, Matt, Cassie, and Sagwa woke up, having been put to sleep literally as soon as they passed through the portal.  
  
The first thing that happened was that everyone else screamed upon seeing Clifford.  
  
"Aaaaaaaah! That's the biggest dog I've ever seen!" Arthur screamed.  
  
"I didn't know they grew that big!" Sagwa shouted.  
  
Matt, used to seeing unusual things in cyberspase, was a _little_ less freaked out than the others.  
  
Clifford's feelings were hurt, and Cassie was the first to notice.  
  
"Guys, I think we hurt his feelings..." Cassie said.  
  
"Oh...we're sorry, sir," Sagwa said apologetically.  
  
Clifford smiled.  
  
"Don't worry about it, and the name's Clifford," Clifford replied.  
  
"My name's Arthur," Arthur said.  
  
"I'm Matt," Matt introduced himself.  
  
"My name is Cassie," Cassie told everyone.  
  
"And I'm Sagwa," Sagwa said, finishing off the introductions.  
  
Then Arthur noticed something.  
  
"How on earth can you _talk_?!" Arthur asked Sagwa.  
  
That's when Sagwa noticed something too.  
  
"How can you _understand_ me?!" Sagwa shot back.  
  
"Yeah, and how come we can understand Clifford?" Matt asked.  
  
"And why are we all here anyway?" Cassie asked.  
  
Then, they heard laughter.  
  
Dave soon appeared.  
  
"You all are just _full_ of questions, aren't you?" Dave asked rhetorically. "Well, no matter. I will explain everything, just as soon as I tell you that you can all understand each other because of my magic."  
  
Dave cleared his throat.  
  
"You are currently in what is known as the spirit world," Dave began. "Don't misunderstand, this is not the world of dead people or any such hogwash. This is the world for those who were never born with physical bodies. We spirits have great powers with unimaginable magnitude."  
  
"However, the spirit world is a cold void," Dave continued, "and although we cannot feel the cold, without our powers it would be a very boring place indeed. So we make objects appear or even create worlds at times in order to amuse ourselves. We can even leave the spirit world and travel to other worlds."  
  
"And you travelled to our worlds," Matt finished. "Why?"  
  
"You see," Dave replied, "I have a friend named Ashura. He is dumb, impatient, rude, and generally has a lot of other bad qualities. He constantly challenges me to games, but he loses every one because he is too impatient and uncreative. But recently, he challenged me to a completely new game."  
  
"What game is that?" Clifford asked.  
  
"Look outside," Dave replied, pointing to a window.  
  
Everyone else rushed to the window, looking outside. They gasped.  
  
There was an entire world outside!  
  
"Ashura has created a whole new world for the game to take place in," Dave continued. "The game is that I have to pick characters to travel through the world, getting past the monsters and traps that Ashura put in place, and retrieve a solid gold goblet at the very end. If those characters succeed, I win. If they do not, Ashura wins. Also, the monsters and traps have anti-violence spells on them. If violence is used against them, the world will blow up, taking the characters with them. I had to therefore pick non-violent characters to play my game."  
  
"And you picked us," Cassie finished. "That's really very kind of you, but..."  
  
"Why should we help you?" Sagwa piped up. "Doesn't that just mean you're using us as your pawns?"  
  
Dave gave a sigh of regret.  
  
"It means just that," he said remorsefully, "but let me ask you something. How many of you come from Earth?"  
  
Sagwa and Clifford raised their paws, and Arthur and Matt raised their hands.  
  
"Max and Emmy come from Earth where I come from," Cassie spoke up.  
  
"You actually come from _different versions_ of Earth," Dave responded. "That's why you've never met each other before. You don't even exist on the same planet."  
  
Then, Dave pointed somewhere else...to another Earth.  
  
"That is the real-world version of Earth," Dave said smugly.  
  
"What do you mean, 'real world'?" Arthur asked suspiciously.  
  
Dave smacked his forehead. How could he have let something like that slip?  
  
"Never you mind, it's just another version of Earth," Dave said quickly. "But Ashura gets to blow that planet up if you don't succeed and I lose."  
  
"_What_?!" Sagwa screamed. "That low-life, miserable scum! Everybody, why don't we help Dave out? Otherwise Ashura will end up killing a bunch of innocent people!"  
  
Everyone got into a group huddle.  
  
After about five minutes' worth of conferring, the huddle disbanded.  
  
"We've thought it over, and we agree to help you," Matt said to Dave.  
  
Dave clapped his hands.  
  
"Excellent, excellent!" Dave shouted in glee. "First, though...Matt, come here."  
  
Obediently Matt walked over to Dave.  
  
"Pull out your Skwak," Dave instructed.  
  
Confused, Matt did as he was told, bringing out his multi-purpose mechanical device. Dave placed his hand on the Skwak, which suddenly lit up with a bunch of different information.  
  
"You now have a map of the false world," Dave told everyone. "Rely on this map so you won't get lost. It won't tell you what monsters and traps lay ahead, though, so you'll have to be very alert. As it will tell you, the false world is split up into different sections: Forest, Volcano, Carnival, Underwater, Sky, Metropolis, Cave, Ice, and Desert. The prize, a solid gold goblet, will be at the very end of the Desert, but you will have to go through every other place first."  
  
"And how do we get to this world without losing air? Didn't you say the spirit world was in a void?" Arthur asked.  
  
In answer, Dave threw weird-looking devices at them. The devices clamped themselves to our heroes' heads.  
  
Everyone gasped in surprise and tried to pry the devices off.  
  
"Don't bother, those devices are your tickets," Dave snapped. "They'll force you into a dream state, and you will only enter the false world in a _dream_. However, since both you and the false world will be false, you will physically feel anything that happens to you in that world. Not to worry, however, because if you're in any danger of dying, you'll be brought back here safe and sound."  
  
Unfortunately for our heroes, they didn't hear that last sentence, for the devices had already sent them into dreamland. They were on their way to the fake world...  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
To be continued...  
  
  
  
As I said before, the manner in which our heroes enter the game world (by dream) was contributed to me by PBSKidVid. If you're reading this, PBSKidVid, I am very, very grateful. To all the rest of you, PBSKidVid isn't a Fanfiction.net writer up to 12-14-2002. E-mail all questions and comments to bleifer@comcast.net 


	3. Forest Section

Quintet: Part Three  
  
by Martial Arts Master  
  
All PBS Kids characters copyright of PBS, PBS Kids, and the shows' respective creators. This fanfiction idea came to me in a dream. In my dream, five PBS Kids characters were on a quest of some sort, though I don't know exactly what, so I made up the story from there in this fic. In my dream, they were known as the Heavenly Quintet. (This was a weird dream. So weird, in fact, that the word the dream actually used was "quantet", which isn't even a word.) However, I had to make a couple of changes. First of all, the Dragon Tales character that appeared in my dream was Ord, but I put Cassie in this fic instead because otherwise, Sagwa, the main character from Sagwa: The Chinese-Siamese Cat, would've been the only female in the entire quintet, which might cause female readers to accuse me of being a sexist pig, and they would have a right to do so. Therefore, Cassie will appear in this fic instead. Second of all, I changed the name of the quintet to the PBS Kids Quintet, because using the word "heavenly" would've been a blatant religious reference, and with the exception of The Adventures from the Book of Virtues, which had an episode centered around "Faith", and the Cyberchase episode that involved the Greek deity Zeus, PBS Kids is completely non-religious. I can't always say the same for the regular PBS, but PBS Kids is for the most part immune to religion. Therefore, to keep the spirit of PBS Kids, the name change stands. Now, on with the fanfic!  
  
***  
  
Our heroes were now in the game world. They looked around, and they noticed that they were in a gigantic forest.  
  
"This must be the the Forest section," Matt observed.  
  
"So what do we do now?" Clifford asked.  
  
Matt looked up the map Dave had entered into his Skwak.  
  
"The map says we go this way," Matt answered, pointing ahead of him.  
  
"Then let's go!" Cassie exclaimed.  
  
"Wait a second!" Arthur piped up before they could move. "Didn't Dave say we'd have to make it past monsters and traps? It's gonna be _so_ scary..."  
  
"We're doing this to save a world," Sagwa pointed out, "so we'll just have to deal with them."  
  
With that, our heroes started their journey through the game world.  
  
  
  
As they were journeying, Cassie and Sagwa were talking.  
  
"And that's how we foiled the burglar!" Sagwa was saying proudly.  
  
Cassie shrugged, and pointed out, "In Dragon Land, we don't have burglars. Everybody knows it's wrong to steal."  
  
Arthur, who had overheard, spoke up.  
  
"You've gotta be kidding me! Does Dragon Land even have any crime at all?!" he shouted.  
  
"Nope!" Cassie said proudly.  
  
"Why couldn't _I_ have been born in Dragon Land..." Arthur muttered enviously.  
  
As this was going on, Matt and Clifford were also talking.  
  
"What's Birdwell Island like?" Matt was asking Clifford.  
  
"Very peaceful," Clifford answered with a smile. "Everyone is really nice, and even the mean people are good most of the time, like Jetta and her dog Mac."  
  
"Do other dogs talk like you do?" Matt asked.  
  
Clifford nodded.  
  
"But the humans can't understand us," Clifford said sadly. "Sometimes I wish they could."  
  
Before Matt could respond, a gigantic snake slithered right in front of their path.  
  
"Ha ha ha ha ha!" it laughed evilly. The gigantic snake was about as big as Clifford was. "You'll all become my snack!"  
  
Everyone screamed.  
  
"Quick! Run for cover!" Sagwa shouted.  
  
The gigantic snake lunged at our heroes, but they were able to run to the side and dodge the attack.  
  
"You won't escape!" the gigantic snake shouted, hissing. "No one escapes from me!"  
  
The gigantic snake lunged at Matt, who at first wanted to drive it off by hitting it with his Skwak, but then realized that that would set off the anti-violence spell, blowing the world up.  
  
Instead, Matt had to duck, and the gigantic snake missed its attack.  
  
"Listen, Mr. Snake, we don't want any trouble," Cassie pleaded, trembling. "We just want to pass in peace..."  
  
"Shut up! You're about to become dragon meat anyway!" the gigantic Snake snapped, lunging at Cassie.  
  
Cassie flew away from the attack, but because the dragons in Dragon land aren't very fast fliers, the snake only missed by a hair. It did, however, land directly on Clifford.  
  
"AAAAAAH!" Clifford screamed, beginning to buck about. "Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!"  
  
The gigantic snake, dizzy at being bucked about like this, was thrown off Clifford's back...and in front of a rock Arthur had taken shelter behind.  
  
Arthur prayed that the gigantic snake wouldn't find him...  
  
"Okay, I think I know how we can beat this thing," Matt told everyone. "I think I saw this Hong Kong movie once where this martial artist couldn't beat a guy who was a master of the Snake style of martial arts. But then he saw his cat dodging a snake, and developed the Cat style of martial arts, managing in the end to defeat the Snake style. Maybe Sagwa would be better at dodging the snake than the rest of us. Sagwa, do you think you can tire it out by keeping it occupied?"  
  
Sagwa trembled at the prospect.  
  
"I'll...I'll...I'll do my best..." she stammered.  
  
Sagwa turned towards the snake.  
  
"Over here!" she shouted.  
  
The gigantic snake turned and lunged at Sagwa.  
  
Sagwa gulped and quickly jumped up, landing on the snake's back.  
  
Now it was the gigantic snake's turn to buck about as Clifford had done.  
  
Sagwa was finding it difficult to hang on, but she managed to do it.  
  
Everyone looked on nervously as this happened.  
  
Finally, the gigantic snake tired itself out doing this, and flopped on the ground in exhaustion.  
  
"I give up...you win..." the gigantic snake muttered.  
  
Then, to everyone's astonishment, the gigantic snake disintegrated into dust.  
  
"I...guess that means we pass..." Cassie said with a sigh of relief.  
  
"Yaaaaaaaay! I did it!" Sagwa cheered.  
  
"You did very well," Clifford told Sagwa proudly.  
  
"I call it luck," Arthur scoffed. "Only the first monster and we were already almost killed! We should just tell Dave to pull us back."  
  
"First of all," Cassie said to Arthur, "Dave _can't_ pull us back...at least, I don't think he can. I don't really know what he can do. But second, even if he _could_ pull us back, we can't give up when an entire planet is counting on us! Remember what Dave said Ashura would do if we lost?"  
  
Arthur didn't look convinced.  
  
"We should keep going, if we're gonna beat the whole world," Matt told everyone, walking forward.  
  
Everyone followed him, Arthur still muttering to himself.  
  
  
  
Later, our heroes stopped to take a rest in the shade of a tree that was even bigger than all the rest, if that was even possible.  
  
"Boy, am I bushed," Clifford sighed.  
  
"Me too," Cassie sighed.  
  
Sagwa confused.  
  
"You're a dragon! Why don't you just fly instead of walk?" she asked Cassie.  
  
"But I couldn't just leave you all behind like that!" Cassie exclaimed. "I can't carry you all on my back."  
  
"And as hard as it may be to believe, my back's only big enough to carry two or three, not four," Clifford finished.  
  
"And we still have more sections to go after this..." Arthur muttered. "This isn't gonna be a comfortable journey..."  
  
He absent-mindedly kicked a pebble ahead of him...and was astonished, along with everyone else, when the pebble was disintegrated by a mysterious force.  
  
"Now that's weird..." Matt said to himself.  
  
Just as an experiment, Matt found a bigger rock and threw it at the same spot. The bigger rock also disintegrated.  
  
"I think we've found the first trap, as opposed to monster," Sagwa commented.  
  
"This is just perfect!" Arthur declared sarcastically. "How are we gonna get past this thing when we can't even see it?"  
  
Then Clifford noticed a switch hidden in the taller trees. He was the only one who could reach it. Even Sagwa probably couldn't climb this tree, and even Cassie couldn't fly to the switch, considering that there was a huge mess of tangled branches beneath the switch.  
  
"This switch probably has something to do with it," he said, pulling it.  
  
Immediately the air in front of them shimmered for a second. Then, as suddenly as it came, the shimmer was gone.  
  
Arthur kicked a pebble at the same spot he had before. This time, the pebble remained intact.  
  
"I guess Clifford solved the trap," Arthur said, smiling for the first time.  
  
"Way to go Clifford!" Cassie cheered.  
  
"Gee, thanks..." Clifford responded modestly.  
  
Our heroes ventured forward.  
  
  
  
As they were walking along, Arthur was thinking to himself about how unlucky he was.  
  
Here he'd been, having a normal life inside his house, when that stupid spirit had to show up and drag him into the middle of this cockamamie adventure!  
  
And what's worse, only _one_ of his companions on this trip even remotely resembled Arthur, and that was Matt. Clifford was a huge dog, Sagwa was a cat, and Cassie was a dragon. Couldn't Arthur have had some _normal_ companions besides Matt?  
  
He knew he was being pessimistic, but he couldn't help it.  
  
Suddenly Matt held up a hand to stop everyone.  
  
"Listen...do you hear that?" Matt asked.  
  
Everyone stopped to listen, and they heard the sound of something moving...  
  
"I don't like this at all," Sagwa said nervously. "It's probably another monster or trap..."  
  
"We'll deal with it when it comes," Clifford tried to reassure her, though he was none too happy at the prospect either.  
  
Suddenly, one of the trees shot out vines at our heroes.  
  
"What on _earth_---" Cassie began to exclaim, but was cut off when everyone was ensnared by the vines.  
  
A deep voice emanated from the tree.  
  
"It appears I have new meals to snack on," the tree said. "My title is Living Tree the Carnivorous, and you are my meals."  
  
Everyone started screaming.  
  
"It's no use, you worthless cretins," Living Tree the Carnivorous snapped. "You are all mine!"  
  
That's when our heroes got a good look at Living Tree the Carnivorous and screamed again. He was _huge_! He had to have been curled up before, and was now his full size, about ten times bigger than Clifford.  
  
Also, he had a large, monstrous looking face on his bark.  
  
"We're all gonna diiiiiiiiieeeeee!" Arthur screamed, pessimistic as usual.  
  
"Just stay calm, everyone!" Clifford instructed, trying to keep calm himself.  
  
"I don't wanna be eaten by a tree!" Sagwa screamed, starting to cry.  
  
It occurred to Matt that if this was a video game, Living Tree the Carnivorous would have "BOSS" written all over him.  
  
Cassie, in her desperation, let out her fire breath straight up...and Living Tree the Carnivorous dropped her in fear.  
  
"Fire! Aaaaaaaaaah!" Living Tree the Carnivorous screamed.  
  
Cassie realized that because trees catch fire easily, Living Tree the Carnivorous had a phobia about fire.  
  
Cassie's fire breath wasn't very strong, and our heroes weren't allowed to use violence anyway, but it occurred to Cassie that maybe she could use Living Tree the Carnivorous's fear to her advantage. After all, Living Tree the Carnivorous certainly didn't know that our heroes weren't allowed to use violence, or that the weak fire breath Cassie had used was in fact her full power.  
  
Cassie was a very nice dragon, and she hated having to do what she was about to do. But she had no choice.  
  
"Drop my friends right now, or I'll use my fire breath on _you_!" she shouted.  
  
Living Tree the Carnivorous dropped everyone else in terror.  
  
"Now leave this place right now!" Cassie shouted.  
  
Living Tree the Carnivorous picked up its roots and hightailed it out of the forest.  
  
"Wow...I didn't know you were capable of that kind of threat..." Matt told Cassie admiringly.  
  
"It wasn't that great," Cassie answered shyly. "I didn't like doing it anyway."  
  
Upon the "defeat" of Living Tree the Carnivorous, two trees suddenly shifted over to the left, revealing the exit that would lead our heroes out of the forest.  
  
"Yahoo!" everyone cheered, running out of the forest as fast as their legs could carry them.  
  
  
  
Meanwhile, in his desolate room in the Desert, the final stop should our heroes succeed, Ashura pondered.  
  
"They've proven to be better than I had expected," Ashura mused. "I had no idea PBS Kids characters were capable of such bravery. I guess Dave wasn't so foolish to pick them after all. Still, the Forest section was at least at a comfortable temperature. They probably won't make it past the Volcano section...mwahahahahahaha..."   
  
  
  
To be continued...  
  
  
  
In the next chapter, our heroes will try to make it past the Volcano section. If you have any ideas about monsters or traps I should put in that section, or any minor plot points involving the PBS Kids characters, tell me in your review. E-mail all other questions and comments to bleifer@comcast.net 


	4. Volcano Section

Quintet: Part Four by Martial Arts Master  
  
  
  
All PBS Kids characters copyright of PBS, PBS Kids, and the shows' respective creators. This fanfiction idea came to me in a dream. In my dream, five PBS Kids characters were on a quest of some sort, though I don't know exactly what, so I made up the story from there in this fic. In my dream, they were known as the Heavenly Quintet. (This was a weird dream. So weird, in fact, that the word the dream actually used was "quantet", which isn't even a word.) However, I had to make a couple of changes. First of all, the Dragon Tales character that appeared in my dream was Ord, but I put Cassie in this fic instead because otherwise, Sagwa, the main character from Sagwa: The Chinese-Siamese Cat, would've been the only female in the entire quintet, which might cause female readers to accuse me of being a sexist pig, and they would have a right to do so. Therefore, Cassie will appear in this fic instead. Second of all, I changed the name of the quintet to the PBS Kids Quintet, because using the word "heavenly" would've been a blatant religious reference, and with the exception of The Adventures from the Book of Virtues, which had an episode centered around "Faith", and the Cyberchase episode that involved the Greek deity Zeus, PBS Kids is completely non-religious. I can't always say the same for the regular PBS, but PBS Kids is for the most part immune to religion. Therefore, to keep the spirit of PBS Kids, the name change stands. Now, on with the fanfic!  
  
***  
  
  
  
Our heroes made it to the volcano and went inside.  
  
However, they soon realized why this section was going to be difficult.  
  
"It's _hot_ in here!" Sagwa complained.  
  
"Even I'm hot, and dragons normally love heat!" Cassie commented.  
  
"Don't worry everyone," Matt said reassuringly. "All we have to do is make it through this section, and we'll be cool in no time."  
  
Clifford, meanwhile, was panting like any dog does when it's hot.  
  
"This is hopeless..." Arthur muttered to himself.  
  
Then, our heroes heard someone talking.  
  
Quickly, they dashed ahead, and saw two strange looking creatures.  
  
They looked like statues of lava that had cooled.  
  
"I'm sorry, but even if you can't see well, you'll just have to stay that way," one was saying.  
  
"Fat chance! You _have_ to lend me the money for that operation!" the other snapped.  
  
"What's going on?" Clifford asked.  
  
Both creatures spun around.  
  
"My friend needs an eye operation, but he actually expects me to give up _my_ money," the first creature said.  
  
"That's because I don't have any money," the second creature snapped.  
  
Cassie narrowed her eyes.  
  
To the first creature, she said, "I don't think it's very nice not to help someone in trouble."  
  
"Who asked you, you stupid little _lizard_?!" the first creature shouted at her.  
  
Cassie's face fell, and she shrank, which always happened when she felt depressed.  
  
Then Arthur had an idea.  
  
To the second creature, Arthur said, "You can have my glasses. They'll help you see better."  
  
Arthur gave the second creature his glasses, and the second creature jumped for joy.  
  
Then, both creatures disappeared into thin air, causing everyone to gasp.  
  
"I guess that must've been a challenge," Matt commented. Then, to Arthur, he said with a smile, "Way to go, Arthur!"  
  
Arthur shrugged modestly, Cassie grew back to normal size, and our heroes continued on.  
  
Soon, they found another pair of glasses on the ground.  
  
"Hey, cool! Now I can make up for having given my glasses away before!" Arthur shouted, running towards the glasses.  
  
"No, wait, Arthur, it could be a trap!" Sagwa shouted, but too late.  
  
As soon as Arthur picked up the glasses and put them on, a circle of lava formed around him and sprung up into a column, cutting Arthur off from the rest of the group.  
  
"I _knew_ it was a trap!" Sagwa lamented.  
  
"What are we supposed to do now?" Clifford cried out.  
  
"Calm down," Matt ordered. To Cassie, he asked, "Can you fly over the column?"  
  
Cassie examined the column.  
  
She replied, "I can't. It reaches all the way up to the ceiling."  
  
"Get me out of here!!!" Arthur shouted.  
  
"Calm down!" Matt shot back.  
  
Then, he noticed that there was some sort of written code in the lava column.  
  
He quickly pulled out his Skwak and started pressing some buttons on it.  
  
The Skwak started translating the code.  
  
Translation: "To bring down the lava column, say 'lower sesame.'"  
  
Spotting the obvious pun on "open sesame", Matt groaned but followed instructions.  
  
"Lower sesame!" Matt shouted.  
  
To everyone's shock, the lava column actually lowered, freeing Arthur.  
  
Arthur sighed in relief.  
  
"Thanks, Matt!" he said to Matt.  
  
Matt merely grinned.  
  
The grin soon left his face when the ground inside the volcano shook with footsteps.  
  
"What's that?" Sagwa asked, trembling.  
  
She soon got her answer when a huge monster made out of fire appeared.  
  
"I am Blaargh, the monster of fire!" the monster roared. "And _you_ will never leave this volcano alive!"  
  
"Everybody _run_!" Clifford shouted.  
  
Everyone turned and started running away from Blaargh except Cassie, who opted for the flying option.  
  
Everyone screamed when Blaargh suddenly shot out a fireball from his hands, nearly burning our heroes.  
  
"And I can do a heck of a lot more than that!" Blaargh boasted.  
  
Blaargh concentrated, and suddenly, columns of fire blasted upwards from the ground.  
  
Our heroes were able to dodge, but just barely.  
  
"We have to _do_ something!" Clifford shouted, stomping his foot down.  
  
Due to his frustration, however, Clifford accidentally stomped a little too hard, shaking the ground even worse than Blaargh's footsteps did.  
  
This caused the ceiling to rain down rocks.  
  
"What the---" Blaargh said, looking up.  
  
That was the last thing he ever did. The rocks buried him alive. And since fire needs oxygen to burn, Blaargh's life was snuffed out.  
  
Clifford tensed, waiting to see if the game world would count that as violence.  
  
And...nothing happened.  
  
Then, a door opened up in the volcano, leading outside.  
  
"Hooraaaaaaaaaaaaay!" Cassie shouted, jumping for joy. "We've passed this section! Come on, everybody!"  
  
Cassie led our heroes outside, where they would soon run into the next section...  
  
  
  
To be continued...  
  
  
  
E-mail all other questions and comments to bleifer@comcast.net 


	5. Carnival Section

Quintet: Part Five by Martial Arts Master  
  
  
  
All PBS Kids characters copyright of PBS, PBS Kids, and the shows' respective creators. This fanfiction idea came to me in a dream. In my dream, five PBS Kids characters were on a quest of some sort, though I don't know exactly what, so I made up the story from there in this fic. In my dream, they were known as the Heavenly Quintet. (This was a weird dream. So weird, in fact, that the word the dream actually used was "quantet", which isn't even a word.) However, I had to make a couple of changes. First of all, the Dragon Tales character that appeared in my dream was Ord, but I put Cassie in this fic instead because otherwise, Sagwa, the main character from Sagwa: The Chinese-Siamese Cat, would've been the only female in the entire quintet, which might cause female readers to accuse me of being a sexist pig, and they would have a right to do so. Therefore, Cassie will appear in this fic instead. Second of all, I changed the name of the quintet to the PBS Kids Quintet, because using the word "heavenly" would've been a blatant religious reference, and with the exception of The Adventures from the Book of Virtues, which had an episode centered around "Faith", and the Cyberchase episode that involved the Greek deity Zeus, PBS Kids is completely non-religious. I can't always say the same for the regular PBS, but PBS Kids is for the most part immune to religion. Therefore, to keep the spirit of PBS Kids, the name change stands. Also, those of you who have actually been reading this fanfic may have been wondering why I've portrayed Arthur as pessimistic and not good for much. This is _not_ because I hate him. I don't. First of all, I try not to hate characters in general, and second of all, I can't hate a character whose show I don't even watch. The reason I've portrayed Arthur this way is because I was leaving room for character growth---growth that will be accomplished in this very chapter. First, though, Arthur's gonna have to do something that'll give him a wake-up call. Finally, as to the reviewer who suggested the "evil clown" idea, whose name is "B4 Not After", I'm going to use that idea, and I'm crediting you here. Now, on with the fanfic!  
  
***  
  
  
  
Our heroes had made it past the Volcano section. They were obviously very relieved that they no longer had to put up with a place that was so friggin' _hot_!  
  
"So, what did Dave say came after Volcano?" Sagwa asked.  
  
Matt thought about that for a minute. "It was the Carnival section," he finally said. "Yeah, that's it. The Carnival section for sure." "So how do we get there?" Cassie asked.  
  
"I'll have my Skwak show us the way," Matt responded, reaching into his pocket.  
  
Then, Matt discovered that the Skwak was _not_ in his pocket.  
  
"That's weird," he said to himself.  
  
Then he noticed Arthur playing with it, looking curious, like the Skwak was a toy.  
  
"Wait! Stop!" Matt shouted, running over to Arthur.  
  
Arthur ignored Matt. The Skwak was neat, Arthur thought. Yeah, he knew he shouldn't be playing with the Skwak, but Arthur had always been careful with toys before. He wouldn't break this one.  
  
At least, that's what he thought.  
  
Unfortunately, when he was pressing the buttons to see what they did, he pressed too many too fast. The Skwak fizzled and then went out, broken.  
  
Matt was horrified.  
  
"_You broke it!!!_" Matt screamed.  
  
"I'm sorry," Arthur muttered guiltily.  
  
Clifford groaned.  
  
"Now we'll _never_ be able to find our way to the Carnival section!" he moaned in despair.  
  
"Did I hear you say you're looking for the carnival section?" asked a voice from behind them.  
  
Our heroes spun around and noticed a male human standing there.  
  
Before any of them could ask who he was, the human continued, "Just continue straight ahead and you'll get to the Carnival. Perhaps you'll find someone there who can fix your Skwak, too."  
  
Before our heroes could ask how he knew the Skwak had just been broken, the human disappeared in a flash of light.  
  
"Who on earth was _that_?" Clifford asked nervously.  
  
"Probably just this world's way of guiding us to the Carnival's challenges," Sagwa replied, shrugging.  
  
Our heroes continued walking straight ahead, and they indeed came to a carnival.  
  
  
  
The carnival in question had everything you could expect in a carnival. There was a lot of food, a Ferris Wheel, a roller coaster, a merry-go-round, bumper cars, a "haunted house", a huge amount of games, etc.  
  
That's when our heroes realized that they were hungry. They hadn't eaten in quite a while.  
  
"We'll worry about the Skwak later," Sagwa said, giving Arthur a dirty look.  
  
Most of our heroes headed to the popcorn stand, leaving Arthur standing there pondering what he'd done.  
  
Because he'd played with something he wasn't supposed to, they'd lost the one device that contained the map Dave had given them. Without it, how could they ever hope to reach the end of the world and claim the prize?  
  
It occurred to him that throughout his journey, he'd been acting pessimistic, bringing everybody down. Well no more!  
  
It occurred to Arthur that it was time to grow up, and fast. He had to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.  
  
Speaking of a problem, once our heroes reached the popcorn stand, they found to their surprise that a clown was in charge.  
  
"Hello...friends..." the clown said in a low voice, chuckling wickedly.  
  
Our heroes immediately realized that something was wrong, but it was too late.  
  
Four yellow beams shot out of the evil clown's eyes, two out of each eye.  
  
As they struck our heroes, one by one they became zombie-like. Soon, they were completely under the clown's spell.  
  
No one else at the park noticed except Arthur, probably because part of the challenge was not receiving help from anyone else at the park.  
  
"Bring them back!" Arthur shouted, running over to the clown.  
  
"Too late, kid," the evil clown said, knocking Arthur away from him. Again, no one else at the park noticed. "The only way you'll ever get them back now is to answer a riddle."  
  
Arthur gulped and stammered, "O...o...okay."  
  
"This riddle contains something from _my_ past," the clown said, chuckling. "Okay, here goes."  
  
The clown cleared his throat.  
  
"A year ago, when I was just starting to become a clown, I was calmly walking along a path, minding my own business," the clown began. "Then, I noticed some townspeople arguing over who had stolen some money. I had a rooster and a pot with me, and I had an idea."  
  
This was beginning to sound like something Arthur had read in a book of lateral thinking puzzles.  
  
If only he could remember the answer...  
  
"I told them that my rooster was magic," the clown continued. "I placed it under a pot and had everyone go inside a building. Then, I turned off the lights and ordered everyone to put their hands on the pot one by one, leaving afterward. The theory went that when the guilty person placed his/her hands on the pot, the rooster would crow. Then, someone would turn the lights back on, and the one whose hands were currently on the pot was guilty."  
  
This was familiar to Arthur. Now he _knew_ this was the same problem as the one he'd read. This wasn't part of the clown's past, this stupid clown had stolen the riddle.  
  
"But when the lights were turned off, and the test was performed, my chicken never crowed," the clown continued. "I said, 'Must be a defective rooster.' Yet when the lights went on, I was able to figure out who was the thief anyway. How?"  
  
Arthur trembled. What on earth was the answer? He had to remember!  
  
He desperately looked at his surroundings for a clue that would jog his memory.  
  
He noticed the rides...the games...the food...the drinks...the dirt on the ground...  
  
_The dirt!!!_ Now Arthur remembered, and became a lot more confident.  
  
"The rooster wasn't magic," Arthur answered. "You said that to make everyone _think_ it was. So since the guilty person was afraid that the rooster might really crow, he didn't put his hands on the pot at all, while everyone else did, knowing their innocence. But the pot was really dirty, so this precaution was actually the thief's downfall, since he/she was the only one in the room who didn't have dirt on his hands. Thus, you had only to look at everyone's hands to figure out who was guilty."  
  
The clown started jumping up and down, screaming.  
  
"Nooooooooooooo!" the clown screamed, throwing a tantrum.  
  
This broke his concentration, and the spell on the rest of our heroes wore off.  
  
"I feel dizzy..." Cassie complained.  
  
"I can't believe an immature kid like you solved it!" the clown screamed at Arthur.  
  
He then disappeared, and a gigantic bag of popcorn was left in its place.  
  
"Oh boy, I'm starved!" Clifford declared.  
  
Our heroes dug in, quickly consuming the entire bag of popcorn.  
  
Then, Sagwa bit into something _hard_.  
  
"OW!" she screamed, spitting the object out, her mouth bleeding.  
  
While Cassie, ever the helpful one, took band-aids out of her pouch and placed them on Sagwa's wounds, Clifford looked the object over, poking it curiously.  
  
Suddenly the object sprang to life, making jumps all over the place and then jumping on the Skwak. It expanded itself, to the shock of our heroes, and then there was a huge _whirring_ sound. It eventually subsided, and the object hopped off to reveal a Skwak with the map displayed.  
  
Apparently, the object had fixed the Skwak.  
  
Matt was impressed.  
  
"Wow...we pass only one challenge, and we get our Skwak fixed! Now we can go to the next section!" he declared.  
  
Then he said to Arthur, "I forgive you for breaking it now."  
  
"That's okay," Arthur responded. "I'm sorry I've been such a pain throughout this journey. I have to wonder though...why was that evil clown the only challenge?"  
  
Matt thought about that.  
  
"You know, it's almost as if we're just characters in a fanfic being written by an author who's run out of carnival ideas..." he said slowly.  
  
Seeing the blank looks on everyone else's faces, Matt realized that none of them surfed the Internet and therefore probably didn't know what a fanfic was.  
  
"Of course, it could be because that Ashura guy Dave spoke of is losing his touch..." he finished.  
  
  
  
As it turns out, Matt was right on the latter.  
  
Ashura, in his place in the Desert, was fuming.  
  
He wondered why he had been unable to think of any other challenges our heroes could face in a carnival.  
  
He reasoned that it was because he was losing his touch. He considered himself more creative than Dave, and therefore this shouldn't have happened.  
  
Oh well, he thought. The next section was the Underwater section...there would be plenty of opportunities for challenges in such an environment.  
  
Ashura chuckled to himself. This was going to be fun.  
  
  
  
To be continued...  
  
  
  
E-mail all other questions and comments to bleifer@comcast.net 


	6. Underwater Section

Quintet: Part Six by Martial Arts Master  
  
  
  
All PBS Kids characters copyright of PBS, PBS Kids, and the shows' respective creators. This fanfiction idea came to me in a dream. In my dream, five PBS Kids characters were on a quest of some sort, though I don't know exactly what, so I made up the story from there in this fic. In my dream, they were known as the Heavenly Quintet. (This was a weird dream. So weird, in fact, that the word the dream actually used was "quantet", which isn't even a word.) However, I had to make a couple of changes. First of all, the Dragon Tales character that appeared in my dream was Ord, but I put Cassie in this fic instead because otherwise, Sagwa, the main character from Sagwa: The Chinese-Siamese Cat, would've been the only female in the entire quintet, which might cause female readers to accuse me of being a sexist pig, and they would have a right to do so. Therefore, Cassie will appear in this fic instead. Second of all, I changed the name of the quintet to the PBS Kids Quintet, because using the word "heavenly" would've been a blatant religious reference, and with the exception of The Adventures from the Book of Virtues, which had an episode centered around "Faith", and the Cyberchase episode that involved the Greek deity Zeus, PBS Kids is completely non-religious. I can't always say the same for the regular PBS, but PBS Kids is for the most part immune to religion. Therefore, to keep the spirit of PBS Kids, the name change stands. By the way, in the previous chapter I forgot to give PBSKidVid credit for the "breaking the Skwak" idea. I'm giving him credit now. Also, a reviewer named "Evil Clowm Lady" who probably meant to put "Evil Clown Lady" gave me the idea for Jaws. Now, on with the fanfic!  
  
***  
  
  
  
Our heroes had made it past the Carnival section.  
  
"So, what did Dave say came after Carnival?" Cassie asked.  
  
"Underwater section," Arthur replied.  
  
That made our heroes stop walking.  
  
"Wait a second...how are we supposed to make it past an entire section that's underwater?!" Clifford asked. "We can't breathe underwater!"  
  
Our heroes were in deep thought.  
  
"Hmm...well...maybe we could find breathing apparatus somewhere," Matt suggested. "In the meantime, let's just keep walking."  
  
And that's exactly what our heroes did.  
  
Eventually, they came to a beach.  
  
"Hooraaaaaaaaaaaay!" our heroes shouted.  
  
Their feet were very tired, so immediately they cooled their feet in the shallow water.  
  
Then, they suddenly heard noises, and cocked their ears to listen.  
  
The nature of the noises became clear.  
  
They were screams for help.  
  
"Someone's in trouble!" Clifford shouted.  
  
Our heroes looked around, and then spotted a little human boy trapped in a whirlpool to their right.  
  
"Help! Help! Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!" the kid was screaming.  
  
"Stay right there!" Cassie shouted.  
  
Cassie flew into the air, and then dived down to where the kid was, pulling him out of the whirlpool.  
  
Then, Cassie set the kid back down on the beach.  
  
"Are you all right?" she asked worriedly.  
  
The kid nodded.  
  
An adult woman and an adult man rushed over to where the kid was.  
  
Obviously, these were his parents.  
  
"Oh thank you so much!" the kid's mom said to all of our heroes. "We thought we'd lost him!"  
  
"Actually, Cassie did all the work," Sagwa replied modestly.  
  
"Be that as it may, if it hadn't been for all of you, we would've lost our son," the kid's father declared. "If you want a reward, just name it."  
  
"The only thing we want is to know how to be able to breathe underwater," Matt said to the adults.  
  
In answer, the adults took scuba gear and placed it on the ground.  
  
"There's enough for all of you," the kid's mom said. "And they all fit."  
  
Then, before our heroes could reply, the humans (except for Matt, of course) left.  
  
"That's weird...some of this scuba gear is too small or too big for humans," Arthur said, inspecting the gear. "It's like it was _meant_ to fit us."  
  
"In this world, it probably was," Sagwa mused.  
  
Our heroes quickly put the scuba gear on and dived underwater.  
  
They discovered, to their pleasant surprise, that they could talk to each other through communicators.  
  
"Hey, this is neat! We can talk to each other!" Sagwa declared happily.  
  
Our heroes' jubilation was short-lived, however.  
  
As they were swimming, they came to a coral wall that blocked all further progress.  
  
They tried punching through the coral wall, but to no success.  
  
Then, they tried to go around the coral wall. They had no success _there_ either, because the wall was everywhere.  
BR> Cassie tried to fly out of the water and go over the wall, but the wall extended up so impossibly high that eventually Cassie got tired and had to come back down underwater.  
  
"Well _this_ is getting us nowhere..." Arthur said. "What now?"  
  
Clifford sighed and leaned against the wall...and was shocked to discover that his paw went through the wall.  
  
Upon further inspection, he discovered that small parts of the wall were made of sand.  
  
"Sagwa, do you think you can dig through one of these sand parts and come out the other side?" Clifford asked Sagwa.  
  
"Sure!" Sagwa declared, digging through the sand.  
  
When she came out the other side, she noticed a button on the other side of the coral wall labelled "PRESS ME".  
  
Well she wasn't going to argue with that. She pressed the button...and to her amazement, the entire coral wall collapsed!  
  
Now our heroes could pass.  
  
"Hooray for Sagwa!" Matt cheered. "Great job!  
  
Sagwa blushed modestly.  
  
As our heroes continued through the water, they noticed that their tanks were now only three-fourths full.  
  
They would have to hurry to pass the Underwater section.  
  
Unfortunately, it wouldn't be that easy.  
  
The next thing they came across...was a gigantic _shark_!  
  
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!" everyone screamed.  
  
"Wait, wait, I'm not dangerous!" the shark protested.  
  
Our heroes stopped screaming, confused.  
  
"My name is Jaws," the shark explained.  
  
"Like the one in the movie?" Matt asked fearfully.  
  
"No, no, I'm harmless. I'm just depressed," Jaws continued. "I have a horrible toothache, and it's _killing_ me! Oh, I just want _relief_."  
  
Our heroes, being as kind as they, decided to help the poor shark.  
  
And Matt had an idea.  
  
"Okay, Jaws, open your mouth and hold still," Matt said to Jaws. "This'll only hurt for a minute."  
  
Jaws fearfully kept his mouth open.  
  
Matt immediately spotted the aching tooth, and no _wonder_ it was aching! It had a bacterial infection. It would have to be removed.  
  
Matt brought his Skwak down as hard as he could on the tooth, knocking it out of Jaws's mouth.  
  
Jaws screamed in pain...and then sighed in relief.  
  
"Hey, I don't have a toothache anymore!" Jaws exclaimed, and said a little poem.  
  
  
  
"Oh happy day!  
  
I'm free of the pain!  
  
It's no longer here to stay  
  
and I'm right as rain!"  
  
  
  
Our heroes clapped.  
  
"Great poem, sir," Cassie said politely.  
  
"Now how do we leave this section?" Sagwa demanded.  
  
"Another beach is right above you," Jaws declared. "Swim up and onto the beach and keep walking. You'll come to the Sky section."  
  
Our heroes thanked Jaws profusely, swam up to the beach, and were soon on their way to the Sky section...  
  
  
  
To be continued...  
  
  
  
E-mail all other questions and comments to bleifer@comcast.net 


	7. Sky Section

Quintet: Part Seven  
  
by Martial Arts Master  
  
  
  
All PBS Kids characters copyright of PBS, PBS Kids, and the shows' respective creators. This fanfiction idea came to me in a dream. In my dream, five PBS Kids characters were on a quest of some sort, though I don't know exactly what, so I made up the story from there in this fic. In my dream, they were known as the Heavenly Quintet. (This was a weird dream. So weird, in fact, that the word the dream actually used was "quantet", which isn't even a word.) However, I had to make a couple of changes. First of all, the Dragon Tales character that appeared in my dream was Ord, but I put Cassie in this fic instead because otherwise, Sagwa, the main character from Sagwa: The Chinese-Siamese Cat, would've been the only female in the entire quintet, which might cause female readers to accuse me of being a sexist pig, and they would have a right to do so. Therefore, Cassie will appear in this fic instead. Second of all, I changed the name of the quintet to the PBS Kids Quintet, because using the word "heavenly" would've been a blatant religious reference, and with the exception of The Adventures from the Book of Virtues, which had an episode centered around "Faith", and the Cyberchase episode that involved the Greek deity Zeus, PBS Kids is completely non-religious. I can't always say the same for the regular PBS, but PBS Kids is for the most part immune to religion. Therefore, to keep the spirit of PBS Kids, the name change stands. Lady Jaws had the fog idea, and Grand High Idol had the giant birds idea. Now, on with the story!  
  
***  
  
  
  
Our heroes were walking along after having conquered the Underwater section.  
  
They were, understandably, in very high spirits. After all, they'd gotten pretty far in their adventure.  
  
Cassie was even humming a tune to herself.  
  
"What are you humming, Cassie?" Sagwa asked curiously.  
  
"Nothing in particular," Cassie responded blissfully. "Just a tune I picked up somewhere."  
  
Our heroes kept on walking, even though the road up ahead went up an unusually steep hill.  
  
Our heroes kept on walking...and walking...and walking...and the hill kept going higher...and higher...and higher...  
  
Pretty soon, our heroes were getting pretty tired.  
  
"I'm _exhausted_," Clifford complained, panting.  
  
"I thought the Sky section was supposed to be---" Matt began, and then gasped.  
  
Our heroes had reached the end of the unusually high hill...and found only air past it.  
  
There nothing but sky beyond the hill.  
  
"Great...how are we supposed to get past _this_ part?!" Arthur demanded.  
  
As Matt paused to think, giant birds appeared.  
  
They were huge, fierce, and blood-red.  
  
"I wonder if they're friendly?" Clifford asked.  
  
It turned out that they _weren't_ friendly, as they soon attacked our heroes.  
  
They dived down at lightning speed, and it was all our heroes could do to dodge them.  
  
"No one trespasses on the Sky section and gets away with it!" the leader of the giant birds shouted, diving at Sagwa.  
  
Sagwa was metaphorically paralyzed with fear, and Matt had to dive at the last minute and grab her to take her out of the way of the attack.  
  
Another giant bird started attacking Clifford, but Cassie managed to chase it away by screaming at the top of her lungs.  
  
That was the answer, our heroes soon discovered.  
  
They quickly shouted at the top of their lungs, creating a racket that could be heard for a quarter of a mile.  
  
The giant birds didn't like noise, judging by their reactions.  
  
"No...please...stop!" one of them shouted.  
  
"We can't take it anymore! We surrender!" the leader screamed.  
  
Our heroes stopped shouting.  
  
"Now how do we get past the Sky section when we have no means of transportation?" Arthur demanded.  
  
The giant birds, in answer, started chanting under their breaths.  
  
Magical energy flowed from them into our heroes...and then, the spell stopped just as quickly.  
  
"You now have the ability of flight," the giant bird leader declared. "Now, we must take our leave."  
  
And with that said, the giant birds took off, fleeing over the horizon.  
  
"Well, I guess we should see if we really _can_ fly," Clifford commented.  
  
Our heroes concentrated, and, indeed, they rose into the air.  
  
"All right! We're flying!" Matt shouted excitedly.  
  
With that, our heroes took off into the air, travelling further into the Sky section, well aware that there was nothing beneath them, but not caring.  
  
Of course, something eventually happened that they _did_ care about.  
  
Namely, the wind was picking up.  
  
In fact, it was getting a _mite_ too high for our heroes' tastes.  
  
"Is it just me, or is it getting a bit windy up here?" Sagwa asked rhetorically.  
  
Soon the wind climbed to hurricane-force, tossing our heroes about like rag dolls.  
  
"Let's just stick this one out!" Matt declared. "Maybe it'll go away! There's certainly nothing else we can do!"  
  
Our heroes reluctantly decided to bear the brunt of the hurricane wind.  
  
The hurricane wind tossed them about mercilessly, like an evil giant toying with its prey.  
  
It was a very harrowing experience.  
  
Clifford wasn't as bad off as the rest, because since he was so huge, it was slightly more difficult to toss him about, for reasons of mass.  
  
Then, after about 5 minutes had passed, the hurricane wind subsided, and degenerated back into the gentle breeze it had been once before.  
  
Apparently the test had indeed been merely to endure the horror.  
  
So, of course, our heroes were relieved when it was all over.  
  
"Thank goodness we never get anything like that on Birdwell Island," Clifford commented.  
  
"If I ever have to go through that again, I'm gonna scream!" Arthur complained.  
  
With that, our heroes continued to move forward, hoping to clear the Sky section as they had the other sections.  
  
It was peaceful for a while. Nothing but the gentle breeze...and the clear blue sky...  
  
At least, the sky _was_ clear until our heroes ran into fog.  
  
And it was very thick fog, at that.  
  
So thick, that our heroes couldn't see anything.  
  
"No problem," Matt said casually. "I have my Skwak."  
  
Matt pulled out his Skwak and pressed some buttons on it...and to his dismay, the Skwak didn't do anything.  
  
"Oh, of course!" Matt groaned, smacking himself on the forehead. "The Skwak doesn't work at such high altitudes!"  
  
Now it was everybody else's turn to groan.  
  
"So now what are we supposed to do?" Sagwa demanded.  
  
"Let's just keep going forward," Clifford suggested.  
  
"But then we might crash into something!" Cassie said fearfully.  
  
"Well, we can't do anything else," Arthur said. "Besides, we stuck out the hurricane wind and made it. We can stick out the fog too."  
  
Surprised that Arthur was being positive, our heroes agreed, and they kept flying through the fog.  
  
To their surprise, their strategy worked.  
  
They made it safely through the fog...and found only sky ahead.  
  
"Whew...we made it," Sagwa said, sighing in relief.  
  
Then, Sagwa screamed.  
  
The fog was gone, but now a sphinx literally the size of a skyscraper was flying in towards them.  
  
It occurred to Matt that if this was a video game, this guy would have "boss" written all over him.  
  
"I take it back!" Sagwa shouted, referring to her earlier "we made it" comment.  
  
The sphinx grinned evilly at our heroes.  
  
"To get past me, at least one of you must answer my riddle correctly!" the sphinx roared.  
  
Matt remembered that a sphinx appeared in Greek mythology. It terrorized a city. Anyone who wished to leave or enter needed to answer the sphinx's riddle correctly. If the person answered wrong, the sphinx tore the person to pieces.  
  
In the legend, no one answered correctly...until Oedipus figured it out. Then the sphinx, who no longer had any power now that her riddle had been answered, tore _herself_ to pieces.  
  
Matt wondered if _this_ sphinx would ask the same riddle.  
  
"What animal walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?"  
  
Matt burst out laughing. It _was_ the same riddle! And Matt knew the answer.  
  
"Humans!" he immediately shouted. He would have answered "man", which was actually the answer in the legend, but there were females present, even if they weren't human, so "humans" encompassed both males and females. "It's actually a trick question. The 'morning' isn't really a morning, it refers to an early period. The 'afternoon' isn't really an afternoon, it refers to a middle period. The 'evening' isn't really an evening, it refers to a late period. Humans fit, because at the early period of their lives, they're babies who don't know how to walk, so they crawl on hands and knees, as if they had four legs. At the middle period of their lives, they're grown adults, so they walk on two legs as usual. At the late period of their lives, they're old and sometimes (but not always) weaker than usual. So they use a cane, just as if they had a third leg."  
  
The sphinx started screaming in despair.  
  
"Nobody gets that riddle! How?!" the sphinx screamed. "You got it right! I can't believe it!"  
  
The sphinx left while still screaming, allowing them to pass.  
  
"How'd you figure out that answer so fast?" Cassie asked curiously.  
  
"I read it in a book of Greek mythology," Matt said. "I come from a dimension where pop culture is very important, so I know a lot of trivia."  
  
Then, our heroes, as they were flying on, spotted a thriving city below them.  
  
"That must be the Metropolis section!" Sagwa shouted.  
  
Suddenly, because they had passed the Sky section, our heroes' flight ability conked out, and they fell to the ground below...   
  
  
  
To be continued...  
  
  
  
E-mail all other questions and comments to bleifer@comcast.net 


	8. Metropolis Section

Quintet: Part Eight  
  
by Martial Arts Master  
All PBS Kids characters copyright of PBS, PBS Kids, and the shows' respective creators. This fanfiction idea came to me in a dream. In my dream, five PBS Kids characters were on a quest of some sort, though I don't know exactly what, so I made up the story from there in this fic. In my dream, they were known as the Heavenly Quintet. (This was a weird dream. So weird, in fact, that the word the dream actually used was "quantet", which isn't even a word.) However, I had to make a couple of changes. First of all, the Dragon Tales character that appeared in my dream was Ord, but I put Cassie in this fic instead because otherwise, Sagwa, the main character from Sagwa: The Chinese-Siamese Cat, would've been the only female in the entire quintet, which might cause female readers to accuse me of being a sexist pig, and they would have a right to do so. Therefore, Cassie will appear in this fic instead. Second of all, I changed the name of the quintet to the PBS Kids Quintet, because using the word "heavenly" would've been a blatant religious reference, and with the exception of The Adventures from the Book of Virtues, which had an episode centered around "Faith", and the Cyberchase episode that involved the Greek deity Zeus, PBS Kids is completely non-religious. I can't always say the same for the regular PBS, but PBS Kids is for the most part immune to religion. Therefore, to keep the spirit of PBS Kids, the name change stands. Grand High Idol had the idea of policemen robots, Dr. Thinker had the idea of Matt disappearing and the clone Hacker, and Sir Alanna had the idea of guilt and logic using Skwak. Now, on with the story!  
  
***  
Our heroes were falling from the sky after having completed the Sky section.  
  
Luckily for Cassie, she was a dragon, and, remembering that she had wings, saved herself by flying.  
  
The others, however, weren't so lucky, and they fell flat on the ground.  
  
Cassie gasped and quickly flew down to check on them.  
  
Miraculously, they were unhurt, although dizzy.  
  
"I never wanna do anything like that ever again..." Arthur groaned.  
  
"You said it!" Sagwa agreed. "That was worse than being chased by Tai-Tai's sleeve dogs!"  
  
Seeing the blank looks on everyone else's faces, Sagwa quickly added, "Tai-Tai's the wife of the magistrate where I live. She has these useless dogs she keeps in her sleeves. Honestly, I don't know why she bothers. Dogs aren't as useful as cats."  
  
Clifford cleared his throat loudly. That reminded Sagwa that it isn't usually wise to insult dogs when you are in the prescence of a dog bigger than a house.  
  
"Present company excepted," Sagwa hastily corrected herself.  
  
"And all my dog _friends_?" Clifford asked warningly.  
  
"Them too," Sagwa confirmed.  
  
Clifford sighed in relief.  
  
"So now what?" Matt asked.  
  
"You tell me, you're the cyber-expert," Arthur snapped.  
  
"That doesn't mean I know everything about technology! I'm not even out of school yet!" Matt shot back.  
  
Before this could escalate into a full-blown argument, Cassie hastily stepped between them.  
  
"Instead of arguing, we should consult Matt's Skwak and figure out the way out of this section," Cassie told them.  
  
At that, our heroes took a good look around at where they were.  
  
It was a huge city, filled with bustling skyscrapers, factories, and roads.  
  
In fact, technology was present everywhere, prompting Arthur's ill-timed "cyber-expert" comment.  
  
One might expect a lot of vehicles in a place like this. Well, there were vehicles, all right...but not the ordinary kind, however ordinary they _looked_.  
  
These vehicles, after arriving at their destinations, disappeared.  
  
That meant they turned into wireframe mode such as a computer-rendered model might start off as, and then vanished.  
  
The people of this city, when they needed them again, typed a code into electronic wristbands on their wrists.  
  
"I guess this must be the Metropolis section," Sagwa commented.  
  
"Well thank you, Captain Obvious," Matt snapped.  
  
Then, he quickly apologized, adding, "I'm sorry. I'm just dizzy from all this hustle and bustle."  
  
Before anyone could say anything else, a policeman walked up to our heroes.  
  
"Are you lost, kind citizens?" the policeman asked in a friendly tone.  
  
Forgetting that a dog was not supposed to be able to be understood by humans, Clifford piped up, "Oh yes, sir! We're trying to find a way out of the Metropolis section."  
  
Clifford looked back and saw his friends making frantic 'be quiet' gestures. He hung his head guiltily.  
  
The policeman didn't seem to find anything unusual about it.  
  
"Come with me to the police station, and we'll see what we can do," the policeman responded.  
  
With shrugs, our heroes followed the policeman.  
  
They did find it odd, however, that he didn't react to Clifford being able to speak.  
When our heroes arrived at the police station, however, they reacted with awe as to how gigantic it was.  
  
This was no normal police station. It encompassed an area equal to _five_ police stations.  
  
Seeing the surprised looks on our heroes' faces, the policeman explained, "The Metropolis section is such a huge city that we need all the manpower we can get to handle it."  
  
Without another word, our heroes were taken inside the station.  
  
Inside, our heroes were surprised to discover a whole army of police officers waiting for them.  
  
"Is all this really necessary?" Cassie asked.  
  
She got her answer when the police officers, including the policeman our heroes had encountered, threw off their clothes to reveal shining metal underneath.  
  
Then, our heroes got an even bigger shock when the police officers pulled off what _appeared_ to be their faces, only to reveal that the faces were masks, and metal heads were underneath.  
  
"You guys are robots!" Matt shouted.  
  
"Uhhhh...what are robots?" Cassie and Sagwa asked simultaneously, clueless expressions on their faces.  
  
After reminding himself that Cassie grew up in a land without technology, and Sagwa grew up in the ancient past, and neither of their fictional books mentioned anything about metal creatures like they did in Clifford and Arthur's worlds, Matt mumbled something like "long story don't ask".  
  
"You see, we have been secretly controlling this city from behind the scenes," the robot that was the policeman our heroes had encountered said. But now his voice was mechanical, with no inflection or emotion.  
  
"Every elected official is secretly elected by us," another robot added.  
  
"But you guys can't possibly make up a majority!" Arthur shouted.  
  
"Did you idiots think only the police have been infested by robots?" a robot on Arthur's left snapped. "We are everywhere! We're in the fire station...a business CEO north of here is a robot...we're in the schools..."  
  
"Okay, okay, we get the picture! But _why_?" Matt asked.  
  
"Because robots are more efficient than humans," a small robot retorted. "We don't need to sleep. We don't need to eat. We don't get bored. We don't need to drink. We started controlling this city from behind the scenes so that we, the superior race, get the power we so richly deserve."  
  
Something about the way these robots were talking nagged at Clifford. But he didn't say anything yet.  
  
"Why did you reveal all this to us?" Arthur asked.  
  
"Because we were planning to kill you anyway," a huge robot answered. "You see, all the research shows that only humans and robots are capable of sentient intelligence. Among you are a cat, a dog, a dragon, and an aardvark. All inferior species. Therefore, you four must be eliminated, and the human too, for harboring inferior species."  
  
At this, Cassie gasped, Sagwa screamed, Clifford trembled, Arthur fainted, and Matt looked angry.  
  
Then, Clifford suddenly realized what had been bothering him.  
  
Not only that, but for some reason Matt's Skwak had become a recording device, with Matt not even noticing. The "record" button was switched on. Probably the game world did that to give them a way out of the challenge, if they could use it right.  
  
And Clifford had a plan.  
  
After whispering in Matt's ear what had happened, and then outlining his plan, Matt turned off the recording device.  
  
"Tell me," Clifford asked casually, "you say robots are superior?"  
  
The robots all nodded.  
  
"Do they have emotions?" Clifford asked.  
  
"Of course not," a robot responded.  
  
"So, if I could prove that you guys have indeed expressed emotions, would you let us go?" Clifford went on to ask.  
  
The robots hesitated.  
  
"We would give you a _chance_ to escape if you could prove that," the same robot reluctantly admitted. "But you don't even have one such instance. So prepare to die."  
  
With that, Matt played back the recording of the entire conversation.  
  
First of all, in response to Arthur's question about majority, a robot had called our heroes "idiots" in a hostile tone. That alone required emotions, but that wasn't all.  
  
Second, another robot had said, "We started controlling this city from behind the scenes so that we, the superior race, get the power we so richly deserve" in a gleeful tone, which would require the emotion of haughtiness.  
  
The robots all screamed upon listening to the recording.  
  
"Very well, you all may go, if the human passes a test," a thin robot said.  
  
"Bring it on!" Matt said challengingly. "I'll take on anything!"  
  
Another robot snapped, "Not when our friend Ashura is giving out the test."  
  
"Did you say _Ashura_?" Matt asked, eyes widening.  
  
But instead of an answer, all the robots in the room disappeared.  
  
Then, Cassie, Clifford, Sagwa, and Arthur all disappeared as well.  
  
Worse than that, though was what appeared.  
  
It was Hacker. Hacker, the enemy of cyberspace. Hacker, who had long been the proverbial thorn in Matt, Jackie, and Inez's sides.  
  
"Surprise, vermin!" Hacker cackled with glee. "I'll destroy you, and I'll dance on your grave! Prepare, brat!"  
  
Hacker took out a laser pistol and fired at Matt, who was narrowly able to dive out of the way.  
  
After that, it was a like a sick, deadly game of tag, with the Hacker chasing after Matt, and Matt running for his life.  
  
Matt tried to run out the door and out of the police station, but found to his dismay that the door was locked. Obviously the robots had locked it earlier when our heroes had come in.  
  
So, in desperation, he ran up the stairs of the police station, Hacker close behind, still firing lasers.  
  
Matt, instead of stopping at the different floors, didn't get off of the stairs until the very last floor of the police station, 7 stories up.  
  
He quickly locked the door behind, and for the moment, Hacker had to suffice with firing lasers through the door, hoping to catch Matt with a lucky shot.  
  
Matt sat down beside the door so the shots would miss, and started to think about his situation.  
  
This was a test...so this probably wasn't the real Hacker.  
  
That, however, didn't make the situation any less dangerous.  
  
Then, he spotted an oil can on a shelf.  
  
This was no fantastic coincidence. Robots needed oiling sometimes, so there were probably cans like this everywhere.  
  
It was still exactly what Matt needed, though, especially as Hacker had stopped firing lasers and begun trying to ram the door down.  
  
Thinking quickly, Matt opened one of the windows, and then spilled the oil on the floor, being careful not to slip on it himself.  
  
With that, Matt hurriedly opened the door.  
  
Hacker, who had been in the middle of another charge, was caught off guard by the lack of resistance.  
  
His momentum carried him into the oil spill, and he began slipping and slidding all the way to the open window.  
  
Matt took a moment to reflect. He wouldn't do what he was about to do next if this were the real Hacker. He wasn't the type that believed that even criminals deserved to die.  
  
But this was a fake.  
  
So Matt had no qualms about waiting until Hacker had slipped towards the window, and then shoving Hacker out of it.  
  
That, of course, is exactly what he did.  
  
Hacker screamed as he fell seven stories, and then, amazingly, as he hit the ground, disintegrated into computer pixels, which then disappeared.  
  
Matt's hunch had been right. Hacker was a fake.  
  
No sooner had Hacker completely disappeared then the entire city followed suit.  
  
As Matt gawked, the entire city and all of its citizens disintegrated into computer pixels, and then disappeared.  
  
Turning around, he found Cassie, Arthur, Sagwa, and Clifford standing behind him, looking confused.  
  
"Weren't we just in a police station?" Sagwa asked.  
  
Matt realized that his friends must not have been aware of anything that had happened during the time they disappeared. Or that they disappeared at all.  
  
Consulting his Skwak for the map to lead them to the next section, the Cave section (and then mentally kicked himself when he realized he could've done that earlier), he said to them, "Never mind. Let's just head to the Cave section. We're done here..."  
  
To be continued...  
E-mail all other questions and comments to bleifer@comcast.net 


	9. Cave Section

Quintet: Part Nine  
  
by Martial Arts Master  
All PBS Kids characters copyright of PBS, PBS Kids, and the shows' respective creators. This fanfiction idea came to me in a dream. In my dream, five PBS Kids characters were on a quest of some sort, though I don't know exactly what, so I made up the story from there in this fic. In my dream, they were known as the Heavenly Quintet. (This was a weird dream. So weird, in fact, that the word the dream actually used was "quantet", which isn't even a word.) However, I had to make a couple of changes. First of all, the Dragon Tales character that appeared in my dream was Ord, but I put Cassie in this fic instead because otherwise, Sagwa, the main character from Sagwa: The Chinese-Siamese Cat, would've been the only female in the entire quintet, which might cause female readers to accuse me of being a sexist pig, and they would have a right to do so. Therefore, Cassie will appear in this fic instead. Second of all, I changed the name of the quintet to the PBS Kids Quintet, because using the word "heavenly" would've been a blatant religious reference, and with the exception of The Adventures from the Book of Virtues, which had an episode centered around "Faith", and the Cyberchase episode that involved the Greek deity Zeus, PBS Kids is completely non-religious. I can't always say the same for the regular PBS, but PBS Kids is for the most part immune to religion. Therefore, to keep the spirit of PBS Kids, the name change stands. Grand High Idol had the idea of cavemen, and Addis had the idea of Clifford not fitting and Sagwa needing to answer a riddle. Someone who e-mailed me had the idea of the bear who has to be stumped. Also, a _big_ surprise: Thanks to the advice of someone who e-mailed me, whose name I will not reveal for privacy reasons because it probably isn't an alias, I am adding _another_ female PBS Kids character! You won't believe who it is. I'll give you a hint: she isn't from the shows the other heroes of this story are from. She will not, however, join our heroes, for this fic is labelled Quintet, after all, not Hextet. She will have a different role. Now, let's get it on!  
  
***  
Dave, the spirit who had sent our heroes on this quest in the first place, had decided to stop by where Ashura had taken temporary residence.  
  
It was easy for him. He used teleportation.  
  
Once there, Dave smirked.  
  
"You're losing so far, _as usual_," Dave pointed out. "So far the PBS Kids characters have gotten past everything you threw at them."  
  
"If I was allowed to make unstoppable traps I would!" Ashura snapped bitterly.  
  
"But you aren't," Dave answered smugly. "That would be cheating. Care to surrender?"  
  
"Get out of my face, hole between the lower cheeks," Ashura shot back. "I've figured out something else to throw you off."  
  
Dave brightened. This might prove interesting.  
  
"What would that be?" Dave asked.  
  
"You have your PBS Kids champions, so I will select a champion of my own," Ashura responded. "She, too, will be from PBS Kids, just for revenge."  
  
Dave laughed uproariously.  
  
"You must be out of your skull, if you had one!" Dave exclaimed, pointing and laughing. "PBS Kids characters are kind-hearted for the most part! No one would ever join your cause!"  
  
Ashura laughed right back.  
  
"If I brainwashed one, one would," Ashura pointed out.  
  
_That_ shut Dave up.  
  
"Clever," Dave admitted. "Who do you plan to brainwash to join your cause?"  
  
Ashura was impuslive as usual, deciding too quickly.  
  
"Sister Bear, from the Berenstein Bears," Ashura responded. "I'll brainwash her, and then use her to try to throw your champions off."  
  
Dave thought about it for a minute. Then, he thought that Ashura was being dumb as usual. He should have selected a stronger character, such as maybe Ord from Dragon Tales, or Plato from Adventures from the Book of Virtues.  
  
"Done," Dave agreed. "Brainwash your champion, and let's continue the game..."  
Meanwhile, our heroes had finally reached the Cave section. There was only one problem.  
  
"I can't fit in the cave!" Clifford whined.  
  
Yes, it was true. Clifford the big red dog was so big that he was completely unable to squeeze through the entrance.  
  
"We have to push!" Matt shouted.  
  
Immediately, our heroes tried pushing Clifford through the entrance of the cave.  
  
It was, however, to no avail, try as our heroes might.  
  
"I'll help you out, if you answer a riddle," said a voice to our heroes' left.  
  
Our heroes spun around, startled.  
  
There before them, sitting quietly, was a very thin old human male.  
  
"What riddle might that be?" Cassie asked politely.  
  
"The riddle is this..." the old man replied.  
  
He cleared his throat and continued, "There are two sisters, each with a husband, living in the same house. The younger woman had a baby that still lived, while the older woman had a baby that died. The older woman stole the living baby out of jealously. An argument erupted over whose baby it was (it was the younger woman's, of course), and the case was brought to the magistrate."  
  
Sagwa grinned. The village _she_ lived in was also ruled by a magistrate. She decided to solve this one herself.  
  
"The magistrate decided that ownership of the baby would be decided by a contest," the old man continued. "Each woman would have a tug of war, with the baby as the rope. The one who could pull the baby away from the other would win. The women agreed, and pulled on the baby. The baby cried out...and suddenly found himself on the floor with the older woman. The magistrate, however, judged the _younger_ woman the victor. Why?"  
  
Hearing a baby in the story reminded Sagwa of Sheegwa, her little sister. Sagwa began to miss her...and then, when Sagwa imagined what would have happened if Sheegwa had been in the baby's place, Sagwa discovered the answer.  
  
"Because the magistrate lied to the women," Sagwa answered proudly. "The contest wasn't of strength. It was of _love_. The real test was the fact that the _real_ mother would rather let her baby be raised by another woman than see the baby hurt."  
  
"And how did you figure that out?" the old man asked, looking impressed.  
  
"Because I thought of what would happen if Sheegwa, my little sister, had been in the baby's place," Sagwa answered. "I would rather see Sheegwa raised by someone else other than my parents than let anyone hurt Sheegwa."  
  
The old man started clapping.  
  
"Well done, kitty cat," the old man exclaimed. "Now I will fit Clifford into the cave...or rather, fit the cave to Clifford."  
  
With that, the old man raised his hands, and the cave started to grow bigger and bigger.  
  
Eventually, the cave was big enough to fit Clifford.  
  
"Yes! Now I can fit!" Clifford shouted in glee.  
  
With that, our heroes went inside...  
They looked around the cave with some misgivings.  
  
"It's dark in here..." Arthur muttered, trembling.  
  
"I wish I could fly...not much space..." Cassie moaned.  
  
"You think _you_ don't have a lot of space?" Clifford complained. "Even with that old man's trick I can barely raise my head."  
  
"We can't give up, gang!" Matt exclaimed. "This Cave section can't be that hard."  
  
Reluctantly, our heroes continued on.  
Meanwhile, Sister Bear had entered the Cave section.  
  
Her eyes were glowing red. Apparently Ashura had brainwashed her as planned.  
  
"Destroy champions...destroy champions...destroy champions...destroy champions..." Sister Bear droned on and on.  
  
She had dynamite in her hands, given to her by Ashura.  
  
She set the dynamite down in a particularly weak section of the cave and set the timer to 1 minutes.  
  
She then ran like heck out of the cave...  
Meanwhile, our heroes were walking on, encountering no challenges.  
  
"This is pretty easy!" Cassie said with relief. "Nothing in our way."  
  
That's when there was the sound of a huge explosion. Then, the cave began collapsing.  
  
"You were saying?!" Arthur screamed.  
  
Rocks began to rain down. Soon, our heroes were buried in rubble...  
Ten minutes passed...  
Sagwa eventually was able to push the rubble off of her. She was lucky; she just happened to have been the only one not hit in the head and knocked unconscious with rocks.  
  
She looked around in the rubble, though, and couldn't see her friends.  
  
"Guys?! Where are you?!" she shouted.  
  
She got no answer, however.  
  
To her luck, however, a bunch of cavemen appeared.  
  
They were funny-looking creatures, with hair all over their bodies, and clubs in their arms.  
  
In fact, they only vaguely looked human.  
  
"Need help?" one asked.  
  
Sagwa jumped up and down with glee.  
  
"Oh yes, please!" she exclaimed.  
  
"First, you help us," another caveman said.  
  
Sagwa groaned.  
  
"What do you need help with?" she asked reluctantly.  
  
She heard a roar from behind the cavemen.  
  
Then, she screamed when she saw a gigantic _bear_ appear.  
  
"I am the bear that cannot be stumped! But I shall turn all of _you_ to stumps!" the bear shouted.  
  
The cavemen screamed and started running around like lunatics.  
  
Sagwa tried to calm down, and thought for a minute.  
  
"What do you mean you cannot be stumped?" Sagwa asked curiously.  
  
"Ask me a riddle, and I can answer it, guaranteed!" the bear replied, thumping his chest proudly.  
  
Sagwa thought for a minute.  
  
"What is always coming, but never arrives?" Sagwa asked.  
  
The bear pondered this.  
  
"Hmm..." it muttered.  
  
Then it swore under its breath.  
  
"I can't believe it! I'm stumped!" it screamed.  
  
"The answer is tomorrow," Sagwa said smugly.  
  
The bear disappeared.  
  
The cavemen cheered. (Hey, that rhymed!)  
  
"That bear has been terrorizing us for days. Thank you, kitten!" the cavemen chorused.  
  
With that, they started clearing away the rubble.  
  
Eventually, our heroes were uncovered.  
  
Soon, they woke up.  
  
"Uhhh...what happened?" Clifford asked, groaning.  
  
"I'll explain later," Sagwa replied, grinning from ear to ear, glad that her friends were okay.  
  
They soon spotted an exit from the cave.  
  
"Let's get outta here!" they cheered in unison after thanking the cavemen.  
  
They soon exited the cave, not knowing that the brainwashed Sister Bear was outside, crouching behind a rock, growling at her failure to eliminate our heroes...   
To be continued...  
E-mail all other questions and comments to bleifer@comcast.net 


	10. Ice Section

Quintet: Part Ten  
  
by Martial Arts Master  
  
All PBS Kids characters copyright of PBS, PBS Kids, and the shows' respective creators. This fanfiction idea came to me in a dream. In my dream, five PBS Kids characters were on a quest of some sort, though I don't know exactly what, so I made up the story from there in this fic. In my dream, they were known as the Heavenly Quintet. (This was a weird dream. So weird, in fact, that the word the dream actually used was "quantet", which isn't even a word.) However, I had to make a couple of changes. First of all, the Dragon Tales character that appeared in my dream was Ord, but I put Cassie in this fic instead because otherwise, Sagwa, the main character from Sagwa: The Chinese-Siamese Cat, would've been the only female in the entire quintet, which might cause female readers to accuse me of being a sexist pig, and they would have a right to do so. Therefore, Cassie will appear in this fic instead. Second of all, I changed the name of the quintet to the PBS Kids Quintet, because using the word "heavenly" would've been a blatant religious reference, and with the exception of The Adventures from the Book of Virtues, which had an episode centered around "Faith", and the Cyberchase episode that involved the Greek deity Zeus, PBS Kids is completely non-religious. I can't always say the same for the regular PBS, but PBS Kids is for the most part immune to religion. Therefore, to keep the spirit of PBS Kids, the name change stands. J.E. Smith had the idea of Cassie being caught in a trap of some kind and needing to be helped, although I'd rather not use the transformation idea because I have something else in mind. AKJ had the idea about the polar bear, JesusFreak9 had the avalanche idea, and Addi had the idea about the hypothermia. Now, let's get it on!  
  
***  
Our heroes finally made it to the Ice section...and discovered why it was called the Ice section.  
  
The area was filled with many mountains, and snow was absolutely everywhere.  
  
There was ice all over the place as well.  
  
Also, and most important of all, it was _cold_!  
  
Our heroes were shivering like they'd never shivered before.  
  
Clifford and Sagwa had it a little better than the others, because _they_, at least, were protected by fur.  
  
Cassie had it worst of all, however, because, being a dragon, she was cold-blooded, and was much more vulnerable to the cold than the others....  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, Sister Bear had made it to the Ice section as well.  
  
"Hey Ashura!" she screamed to the sky. "It's cold here! How about a coat?"  
  
Immediately Ashura dropped a heavy coat to Sister Bear, who gladly put it on.  
  
Sister Bear had some salt in her pocket, and she quickly took another route, going ahead of our heroes.  
  
She started to put salt on some ice that she found...  
  
***  
  
Our heroes eventually made it to that same ice, but Cassie was walking very weakly, being more vulnerable to the cold than the others.  
  
Suddenly, the ice collapsed, taking our heroes with it.  
  
Our heroes soon found themselves in an icy-cold lake, and they were screaming, splashing about in panic to get out.  
  
It was Clifford who eventually calmed down and lifted our heroes out of the water one by one before climbing out himself.  
  
As our heroes sighed with relief, they looked over at Cassie...and gasped in shock.  
  
Cassie's scales had all turned entirely blue, and Cassie had passed out.  
  
Matt checked to make sure Cassie was still breathing. She was, fortunately.  
  
"She has hypothermia," Matt told our heroes. "We need to keep her warm until we can get help."  
  
"Is she gonna be all right?" Sagwa asked worriedly.  
  
"She is if we can keep her warm," Matt replied.  
  
"Put her on my back," Clifford instructed. "My fur should have enough body heat to keep her warm."  
  
With Cassie on Clifford's back, Arthur looked depressed.  
  
"How are we gonna get past this section if we run risks like getting hypothermia?" Arthur asked, a resigned tone in his voice. "I think maybe we should turn back."  
  
"Absolutely not! You heard what Dave said!" Sagwa snapped at him. "Ashura will blow up some version of Earth if we don't complete this game!"  
  
With that, our heroes trudged reluctantly on.  
  
As they were walking, Clifford got dust in his nose.  
  
And of course, you know what that means...  
  
Clifford sneezed, and it came out a very loud "ACHOOOOOOOOO!"  
  
"You dunce! Don't you know that in snowy mountains loud noises cause---" Arthur began, but it was too late.  
  
The force of the sneeze had shaken loose a pile of snow at the top of one of the mountains.  
  
"_Avalanche!!!_" Matt screamed.  
  
Everyone tried to run for cover.  
  
Clifford, due to his size, was able to make it beside a mountain and hide there, but the rest of our heroes were completely covered in the avalanche.  
  
"Oh no!" Clifford cried out in despair. "What have I done?!"  
  
"Trapped your friends in an avalance," came a female voice from behind Clifford.  
  
Clifford spun around in surprise to find an Eskimo woman standing there.  
  
"But you can make up for your mistake, if you answer a riddle," the Eskimo woman continued.  
  
The woman cleared her throat.  
  
"What is always running, but never leaves?" the Eskimo woman asked.  
  
Clifford thought for a minute.  
  
"A clock!" he answered smugly.  
  
The Eskimo woman started throwing a tantrum.  
  
"Nobody ever gets that one!" the woman screamed. "Nobody! Nobody! Nobody!"  
  
In her anger, the Eskimo woman gave out a loud whistle.  
  
An abnormally huge polar bear that was only a little smaller than Clifford suddenly appeared, roaring at Clifford.  
  
"Go get that stupid know-it-all!" the Eskimo woman screamed.  
  
"Now wait a minute, I answered your riddle! You should be _helping_ me!" Clifford protested.  
  
Clifford's protests were in vain, and the polar bear lunged at him, swiping at him repeatedly with its claws.  
  
Clifford jumped back, and he covered a long distance thanks to his size.  
  
That gave him time to think.  
  
As he was thinking, he spotted a bracelet on the polar bear's ankle.  
  
Experimenting, Clifford jumped forward, grabbed the bracelet with his teeth, and pulled it off.  
  
This turned out to be the source of the polar bear's power, and the polar bear shrank back to normal polar bear size.  
  
The polar bear, now that Clifford towered over him, gave in to fright and ran away into the distance.  
  
"Now help my friends!" Clifford demanded of the Eskimo woman.  
  
The Eskimo woman grumbled, but she uttered an incantation, and the snow covering our heroes disappeared.  
  
"Bye, scumbag," the Eskimo woman taunted, disappearing.  
  
"Are you guys all right?" Clifford asked the rest of our heroes.  
  
The rest of our heroes nodded.  
  
Then, our heroes soon realized that they had passed the Ice section.  
  
How did they realize this, you might ask?  
  
Well, the clue might've been the air shimmering around them, changing the environment into a desert...   
  
***  
  
To be continued...  
  
***  
  
Well, the next chapter, the Desert Section, will be the very last chapter. Also, if you're wondering why I changed the way I space things, it's because this stupid Fanfiction.net system will no longer read four BR tags in a row properly! Now it reads four BR tags in a row as single-space for some reason instead. E-mail all other questions and comments to bleifer@comcast.net 


	11. Desert Section and Final Chapter

Quintet: Part Eleven  
  
by Martial Arts Master  
  
All PBS Kids characters copyright of PBS, PBS Kids, and the shows' respective creators. This fanfiction idea came to me in a dream. In my dream, five PBS Kids characters were on a quest of some sort, though I don't know exactly what, so I made up the story from there in this fic. In my dream, they were known as the Heavenly Quintet. (This was a weird dream. So weird, in fact, that the word the dream actually used was "quantet", which isn't even a word.) However, I had to make a couple of changes. First of all, the Dragon Tales character that appeared in my dream was Ord, but I put Cassie in this fic instead because otherwise, Sagwa, the main character from Sagwa: The Chinese-Siamese Cat, would've been the only female in the entire quintet, which might cause female readers to accuse me of being a sexist pig, and they would have a right to do so. Therefore, Cassie will appear in this fic instead. Second of all, I changed the name of the quintet to the PBS Kids Quintet, because using the word "heavenly" would've been a blatant religious reference, and with the exception of The Adventures from the Book of Virtues, which had an episode centered around "Faith", and the Cyberchase episode that involved the Greek deity Zeus, PBS Kids is completely non-religious. I can't always say the same for the regular PBS, but PBS Kids is for the most part immune to religion. Therefore, to keep the spirit of PBS Kids, the name change stands. Grand High Idol had the idea of the Arab men on camels, and JesusFreak9 had the idea of Ashura facing our heroes himself and blocking Dave's access. I am really, _really_ sorry ACME-Rian, but I can't use your idea because it would interfere with what I had in mind with the story. Speaking of the story, here we go!  
  
***  
  
Our heroes were now in the Desert section...and it was _hot_!  
  
This time, Cassie had it better than any of the others, since dragons like heat.  
  
And also this time, Clifford and Sagwa had it worse than any of the others, since they had fur, and fur isn't really good for heat.  
  
"It's hot out here!" Sagwa complained.  
  
"Relax," Matt told Sagwa. "This is the last section. Then, we'll each be home free."  
  
"I hope so..." Clifford moaned.  
  
Then, Arab men on camels rode up to our heroes.  
  
"Hey, aren't you the guys that attacked the World Trade Center and the Pengaton on September 11, 2001?" Arthur asked them.  
  
Matt quickly clamped a hand over Arthur's mouth.  
  
"That's a stereotype!" Matt snapped at him. "Some Arabs like the US. Some Arabs don't like the US, but they don't support war. It's not fair for you to judge all Arabs as if they were Osama bin Laden. Our world was made great by the amalgam of different cultures."  
  
The Arabs clapped.  
  
"Finally, someone who has some sense!" the leader of the Arabs said. "Do you have any idea how many people discriminate against Arabs now because of that---?"  
  
The leader uttered a curse word in Arabic and then mentioned the name Osama bin Laden.  
  
"But still, you all will have to solve a riddle to get past," one of the others said.  
  
The leader cleared his throat.  
  
"If a tree falls in the forest, and no one was around to hear it, does it make a sound?" the leader asked. "Now because this riddle has no answer to it, there are _no_ right or wrong answers. Instead, the test is that one of you must create an answer that makes sense. If you cannot come up with an answer, you do not pass. But no answer is right or wrong."  
  
Our heroes were in deep thought.  
  
Matt came up with an answer eventually.  
  
"It does," Matt answered, "because sound is actually vibrations. Sometimes when things happen, they cause vibrations. Our ears _perceive_ the vibrations as sound, but they are still vibrations. Since the tree falling would cause vibrations whether or not there are any ears around to hear it, the answer is yes, the tree does make a sound."  
  
The Arabs discussed the answer among themselves.  
  
Finally, the leader said, "That is a creative answer. And it uses actual science, too! I'm impressed, I thought kids were ignorant. You may pass."  
  
The Arabs on camels all disappeared, and our heroes passed triumphantly.  
  
Their triumph was short-lived, however, when a giant sand-worm came up in front of them.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Sagwa screamed. "Giant sand-worm! Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiide!"  
  
Sagwa buried herself beneath the sand.  
  
The others started to do so too, until they realized that the sand-worm was making no move towards them.  
  
"Why aren't you attacking us?" Cassie asked.  
  
"Because I'm not as bad as everyone thinks," the sand-worm replied.  
  
Then, it began to cry.  
  
"Everyone thinks I'm bad because of how I look!" it shouted. "No one ever stops to talk. No one ever asks me whether or not I like being in the desert. No one ever plays with me. No one ever gives me anything, or asks me for anything. No one ever wants to be my friend. Instead, everyone just screams and runs or hides."  
  
The sand-worm continued crying, and our heroes noticed another problem.  
  
The sand-worm was so big, that the tears, in order to be the same size relative to him that our heroes' tears were relative to them, the tears were _humongous_!  
  
Our heroes had to dodge about, and they didn't know what to do.  
  
Finally, Cassie said to the sand-worm, "We're sorry! We didn't mean to judge you by your looks! We'll never do it again!"  
  
The sand-worm stopped crying.  
  
In a sudden mood change, the sand-worm said brightly, "Oh that's okay. I just wanted an apology. You've passed the test of kindness."  
  
The sand-worm disappeared.  
  
"Whew...maybe now we can look for that golden goblet!" Clifford said brightly.  
  
Our heroes began their trek across the desert.  
  
They had a rough time, because there were many more challenges to face.  
  
They had to make it past quicksand, scorpions, the scorching heat of the desert itself, and even the lack of water (they found an oasis by following the scent eventually).  
  
But eventually, they perservered, and made it to a pyramid.  
  
"Do you think the golden goblet's in there?" Arthur asked.  
  
"Well, there's only one way to find out!" Matt told everyone...  
  
***  
  
Once our heroes went inside, they noticed how dark it was inside the pyramid.  
  
They had to stumble around in the darkness.  
  
Eventually, though, they made it to a bright room, and went inside.  
  
There, after all of their troubles, was the golden goblet, sitting on a pedestal.  
  
"We made it!" Cassie shouted joyfully.  
  
But as our heroes rushed to grab the goblet, they stumbled across a tripwire set by Sister Bear earlier.  
  
This dropped a huge boulder towards our heroes, but luckily, they were able to dodge the boulder.  
  
Soon, our heroes heard someone yell, "_Drat_!"  
  
Immediately our heroes turned around and saw Sister Bear standing behind them, cursing.  
  
Ashura then appeared.  
  
"It seems you're quite useless, stupid girl," Ashura chided her.  
  
"I'm sorry..." replied the brainwashed Sister Bear.  
  
"Sorry's not good enough!" Ashura screamed.  
  
With that, Ashura de-brainwashed Sister Bear, and sent her back to her tree home, with no memory of what had happened.  
  
"Now, the rules say I am supposed to give you the goblet now," Ashura told our heroes, "but I'm not going to. And why should I? I worked so hard to create this world, and you made it past all my traps! It's not fair! I lose every game! Well I'm not going to lose this one! I'll destroy you all! But first..."  
  
Ashura raised a hand, and the world dissolved into a purple haze to which Dave could not enter or see.  
  
"Now Dave will never know that I cheated! And I'll get to blow up Earth!" Ashura gloated.  
  
"But why do you want to resort to cheating?" Cassie wanted to know.  
  
"Because in every single game I ever compete with Dave in, he always beats me!" Ashura screamed. "Boxing...basketball...everything! He always beats me! It isn't fair! I never ever get to win anything! That lousy loser...well now, if I cheat, I'll win _this_ game, and finally give him what for!"  
  
"Why don't you just stop competing with him and do something else with your time?" Cassie suggested. "You're a spirit. You could do that."  
  
Ashura mulled this suggestion.  
  
Then, he made himself solid and slapped himself in the forehead.  
  
"_Why didn't I think of that before?!_" he asked himself. "I'm so _stupid_!"  
  
With that, Ashura disappeared.  
  
Our heroes grabbed the goblet, and they were immediately sent out of the game world and directly to Dave.  
  
Dave gratefully took the goblet.  
  
"And now to send you back," Dave said simply.  
  
Our heroes gasped.  
  
"Wait! We haven't even had time to say good-bye to each other!" Sagwa shouted.  
  
"Frankly, I was getting bored with this game anyway," Dave told Sagwa. "Besides, you won't have any memory of this adventure anyway."  
  
With that, Dave sent our heroes back where they belonged, with no memory of the incredible adventure they faced together...   
  
***  
  
The End  
  
***  
  
I _finally_ finished this fanfic! I've been wanting to finish this for a long time, so I apologize if the last few chapters were a little rushed. E-mail all other questions and comments to bleifer@comcast.net 


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